I 



THE 



PAPAL CONSPIRACY 
EXPOSED, 

AND 

PROTESTANTISM DEFENDED, 

IxN THE LIGHT OF 

REASON, HISTORY, AND SCRIPTURE. 

B Y 

REV. EDWARD BEECHER, D.D. 



BOSTON: 
PUBLISHED BY STEARNS & CO., 

91 Washington Street. 
1 8 5 5. 



Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1854, by 
EDWARD BEECIIER, 
In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetto. 



8TKREOTTPED AT THB 
BOSTOir 8TKBE0TTPJE FOXTNDBT. 



FRIENDLY CONSIDERATIONS FOR AMERICAN 
PROTESTANTS AND FREEMEN. 



God, my fellow-countrymeiij has conferred on you the peculiar 
honor and the eminent responsibility of being jurors in behalf of 
tbe great commonwealth of humanity in a momentous case in 
which he himself is Judge. 

The great criminal arraigned for trial before his bar is that pecu- 
liar corporation claiming the right to be called the church of Rome. 

You are called on to decide whether this corporation, for treason 
against God and hostility to the human race, deserves the execra- 
tion of mankind and the righteous and avenging judgment of God. 

In order to decide this question, you are to consider, not any 
plausible professions which the corporation may put forth, but the 
organic laws of the corporation, its avowed principles, the inevitable 
tendency of such laws and principles, and finally the actual results 
of these tendencies as imbodied in history. When you have in- 
telligently considered these things, you will be able to decide what 
this corporation is and what ought to be its doom. 

You are therefore called on also to decide whether this corpora- 
tion has changed for the better or not since its principles were fully 
developed during the era or dispensation of their notorious head, 
Gregory VIL, sometimes called Hildebrand ; whether the lion's 
claws that it then had have been extracted, or only concealed ; 

V (3) 



4 



FRIENDLY CONSIDERATIONS 



whether its teeth have been knocked out, or only hidden till it 
can find another opportunity to bite and devour. On these points 
some of the orators of the corporation have made most beautiful 
and touching appeals, protesting that in these auspicious days of 
liberality the lion has laid aside its ancient ferocity and repented 
of its bloody deeds, and is ready to lie down with the lamb, and the 
leopard with the kid, and that a little child can lead them. You, 
as good men and true, are called upon to say upon your oaths 
whether you find that there is any evidence that this blessed trans- 
formation has taken place. 

Indeed, in coming to your ultimate results, you are called on to 
decide a still more important question — that is to^ay. What is the 
character of this corporation for truth and fidelity to engagements ? 
You are called on to decide whether it is ever safe to trust any af- 
firmations or denials of this corporation, or of any of its agents, as 
to any matters of fact touching their own interests or involved in 
their own defence. 

You are therefore called on to decide, first. What has been the 
character of this corporation in these respects in ages past? And 
if you find that it has been infamous to the last degree, then you 
are to decide whether it has ever repented and brought forth works 
meet for repentance, so as at last to deserve to be admitted into 
decent, civilized, and Christian society. 

Not merely in ages past, but also at the present day, this corpora- 
tion has promulgated certain bills of rights designed to define the- 
extent of their own claims and prerogatives. These may, by way of 
distinction, be called the Papal bills of rights. On these you are- 
also called to sit in judgment. The amount of them in. brief ia 
this : This Papal corporation have avowed a conscientious convic- 
tion that God has empowered them to do all the thinking of all 
mankind on all points of Christian faith and practice, and that he 
has required all the rest of mankind to think as this corporation 
thinks, on pain of eternal damnation ; also that God has given them 



FOR AMERICAN PROTESTANTS ANP FREEMEN. 



5 



full power over kings and all rulers, to use them as instruments in 
enforcing this right, by crusades, confiscations, proscriptions, and 
boundless slaughters. Such are their avowed and conscientious 
convictions on these important and interesting topics. 

Their ideas of their own rights of conscience correspond- that 
is to say, they claim the right to act out these conscientious convic- 
tions without let or impediment. This is in brief the bill of Papal 
rights of conscience. 

' Their ideas of the rights of conscience in all others are no less 
interesting and instructive. They liberally concede to all mankind 
the right to obey such laws and decisions of all sorts as they shall 
declare that God has promulgated through themselves, and none 
others in contravention of these. In short, their theory of the rights 
of man is in brief this : That all mankind have an inalienable right 
to obey the laws of the Papal corporation, and that all who refuse to 
obey these laws have no other rights whatever. 

The doctrines of this corporation on the subject of persecution are 
ao less instructive. They are these : — 

Inasmuch as God has given to them the rights of conscience above 
stated, it is not persecution in them to carry those rights into full 
and perfect effect, by deposing rebellious kings and rulers, and by 
using such rulers as are obedient to them, in the laudable and divine 
work of torturing, and then butchering or burning, all rebels against 
Papal authority, confiscating their goods, and rendering them and 
their children infamous forever. For the Papal corporation to do 
all this is not persecution, but the exercise of just authority. 

On the other hand, if any man shall have the hardihood and 
audacity even secretly to think that this is wrong, and much more to 
say so, that man is a persecutor. Much more is he a persecutor if 
he shall dare to endeavor to create a public sentiment that shall 
ikvow infamy upon the corporation simply because they have exer- 
cised their just rights of conscience in butchering a few millions of 
heretics — say, for example, about fifty millions, more or less. 
1* 



6 



FRIENDLY CONSIDERATIONS 



Still more, it would be inexcusable persecution for this nation to 
pass any laws to prevent them from gaining, as soon as possible, the 
ability to carry out their rights of conscience aforesaid in this country. 

In particular, if the head of the corporation shall send to this 
country pecuniary agents, whom he sees fit to call bishops, and to 
concentrate in them all the property of all the religious societies in 
this land who own his sway, as one means of gaining the power at 
which he aims, then to interpose by law to prohibit and prevent 
such accumulation would be a still higher grade of persecution. 

Above all, to expel by law from this land the sworn pecuniary 
agents of the foreign head of this corporation, even althougli they 
should be manifestly, and openly, and undeniably guilty of a treason- 
able conspiracy with foreign Romish powers to subvert the consti- 
tution and laws of these United States and of each particular state 
in this confederacy, would be the summit of persecution. This is 
self-evident ; because any government that refuses to submit to the 
jurisdiction of this corporation has no right to exist, and therefore it 
is a duty to conspire to overthrow it. Indeed it is the conscientious 
conviction of the members of this corporation that they are called 
on, AS SOON AS THEY CAN GET THE POWER, to rulc all such govern- 
ments with a rod of iron and to dash them in pieces like a potter's 
vessel. 

That these are the present claims of this corporation, without col- 
oring or exaggeration, I think you will be satisfied when you shall 
have read the evidence adduced in this volume, which is but a 
small part of what could be offered. 

I will, however, in this place present one item more, which I re- 
quest you to consider in connection with that in the body of this 
work. 

Pope Pius VII., whose papacy occupied nearly the first quarter 
of the present century, gave to his nuncio at Vienna the following 
instructions, in view of the claims of certain Protestant princes on 
his ecclesiastical property in Germany for indemnity for certain 



FOR AMERICAN PROTESTANTS AND FREEil^^N. 7 



injuries. He says, " Not only has the church succeeded to prevent 
heretics from possessing themselves of ecclesiastical property, but 
she has established the confiscation and the loss of goods as the 
punishment of those guilty of the crime of heresy. This punish- 
ment, as it respects the goods of individuals, is decreed by a bull 
of Innocent III.; and, in respect of principalities and fiefs, it is a 
rule of the canon law (Chap. Absolutos xvi., De Hcereticis) that the 
subjects of an heretical prince are enfranchised from every duty to= 
wards hini and dispensed from all fealty and homage. However 
slightly one may be versed in history, he cannot but know that sen- 
tences of deposition have been pronounced by pontiffs and by 
councils against princes guilty of heresy. Indeed we have fallen 
upon such calamitous times, times of such humiliation to the 
spouse of Jesus Christ, (!) that it is not possible for her to practise 
nov expedient Xo inyoke her most sacred maxims of just rigor 
against the enemies and rebels of the faith. But, if she cannot 
exercise her right of deposing heretics from their principalities 
and of declaring their goods forfeited, can she ever positively per- 
mit herself to be despoiled to add to them new principalities and new 
goods ? What occasion of deriding the church would not be given 
to the heretics and unbelievers themselves, who, insulting over her 
grief, would say that means at length had been found out to make 
HER tolerant ! " Such are the doctrines of this corporation in the 
nineteenth century. 

■* This interesting document was obtained by M. Daunou from the 
archives of the Vatican when they were removed by Bonaparte to 
Paris, and were by the government committed to him for custody. 
The Italian original may be found in the second volume of his able 
History of the Court of Rome. This invaluable work every Ameri- 
can ought to study, though its author is a lay Romanist. Of him I 
have said more in another part of my work. 

In the light of this equitable document, we see clearly that the 
Bomish church, so called, is under no obligation to make any com- 



8 



FRIENDLY CONSIDERATIONS 



pensation to Protestants for any injuries whatever in the shape, for 
example, of deposition, confiscation, plunder, murder, &c. ; for it is 
HER RIGHT to do such things to heretics, and her most sacred 
MAXIMS of just RIGOR require her to do them, whenever she can. 

But how is it witL regard to Protestants? Even thus: If a mob, 
without violence to life, happens to burn a single convent, then the 
State of Massachusetts is to be held up to eternal infamy by the 
pope, and all his pecuniary agents called bishops, if she refuses to 
make restitution to the Romish corporation to the uttermost farthing. 

Accordingly the Papal corporation never has made any restitution, 
and intends never to make any restitution, for cities sacked, churches 
burned, families plundered of their all, husbands and wives, parents 
and children, tortured and butchered by it with the most savage 
ferocity. The most sacred maxims of just rigor established 
by that corporation authorize and demand all these things; for it is 
self-evident that rebels against this corporation have no rights. But, 
if this state shall not make full restitution for property which they 
did not destroy, human language cannot utter the infamy and the 
deep damnation that this corporation will assign to all her Protestant 
citizens for such atrocious persecution. 

Moreover from this document it appears that this gen,tle spouse 
of Christ is dissolved in grief in view of the present calamitous times, 
which prevent her from fully exercising her just rights of confiscation 
and murder, and regards the very supposition by the heretics that 
any means can possibly be found out sufficiently powerful to make 
her tolerant an insult over her grief. 

What heart can be so hard as not to be touched with sympathetic 
sorrow in view of such deep grief of this most interesting and affec- 
tionate corporation 1 

That the present pope, Pius IX., fully sympathizes with these 
views, is plain from his brief dated June 10, 1851, in condemnation 
of Francis G. Vigil, of Lima, Peru, which I have not room to quote, 
and from his a,llocution to the cardinals of the church, delivered 



FOR AMERICAN^ PROTESTANTS AND FREEMEN. 



9 



September, 1851, in which, he says that "Ae hath taken this prin- 
ciple for basis, that the Catholic religion, vjith all its rights, ought to be 
exclusively dominant in such sort that every other worship shall be 
banished and interdicted.'^ Well then may he, as he does, unite with 
his bishops in this country in applauding 0. A. Brownson's maga- 
zine. Moreover I shall show in my work that the doctrines which 
I have just stated are an essential part of the constitutional law of 
this corporation, and that they are at this day taught and defended by 
Mr. Brownson and sanctioned by the Bishops of Rome at present 
sojourning in these United States. 

On these principles, then, you are called by the providence of 
God to sit in judgment, and to decide whether the principles of our 
government were designed to defend such rights of such consciences 
and to protect and establish the claims and authority of such a cor- 
poration. 

You are also called to sit in jiidgment upon the influence of the 
corporation putting forth such claims upon all the religious, civil, 
and social interests of the community in ages past and at this day. 
Especially are you called on to decide upon the influence of the celi- 
bacy of the clergy in connection with the confessional, and also of the 
whole system of monasteries and nunneries established in this land. 
No other subject more deeply aff'ects the interests of the future mil- 
lions of this continent, which God has given in trust to you. 

You are also called upon to consider upon what grounds the mem- 
bers of this corporation base their claims to such prerogatives and 
rights as they arrogate to themselves ; whether they have, indeed, 
a divine warrant for them, or whether they are based upon a foun- 
dation of forgeries and frauds as atrocious as their claims are all- 
comprehending and exclusive. 

My object in this volume is to furnish you with some authentic 
evidence for your careful consideration in forming your judgment 
on all these momentous questions. 

God's great books of revelation and of history are open before this 



10 CONSIDERATIONS FOR PROTESTANTS AND FREEMEN. 

nation. The evidence which I adduce is derived from their pages. 
The foundations of this corporation I have examined and the process 
of its formation. I have given an historical view of the deeds of 
three of its leading master builders — one of them the patron saint 
of the Romish bishops residing in these United States. 

I have also considered its influence in the period of its greatest 
power and most perfect development, and also from that day to this. 
Its true character is developed in its history and in the word of 
God. 

To this course of historical investigation, as well as to all the 
other evidence, I ask your careful attention. Remember that you 
are judges with God in the greatest case of all ages — a case radi- 
cally afl'ecting the glory and the reign of God and every interest of 
ihe whole human family. 

May the supreme Judge, in whose court you are jurors, so 
instruct you that you shall pronounce a righteous judgment accord- 
ing to the law and the facts of the case. 



CONTENTS. 



INTRODUCTION. 

PAGE 

Chap. I. — The Romish Corporation against our Protestant Fathers, . . 18 
Chap. II. — Illustrations of the Spirit and Aims of Popery, ... 16 

^HAP. III. — The Central Power of Popery, 20 

Chap. IV. — The Essence of Protestantism, . . . , • . .24 



PART I. 

ROMANISM A FRAUDULENT AND PERSECUTING CONSPIRACY. 
Chap. I. — Romanism invades the Rights of Man as to Truth, Fidelity, 



Property, and Life, 30 

Chap. II. — Popish Principles of Veracity and Fidelity, . . . .32 
Chap. III. — Popish Professions in Great Britain and America, . .36 
Chap. IV. — What ought we to believe ? "What is the supreme Tri- 
bunal? 42 

Chap. V. — Positions to be proved, 47 

riTAP. VI. — Testimony adduced, . 50 

CiiAi". VIJ. — Appeal^or Judgment to all true Americans, ... 81 

Chap. VIII. — The Gallican, or French, Doctrine, 88 

Chap. IX. — Evasion of Charles Butler, 92 

Chap. X. — Evasion of Bishops Hughes and Kenrick 96 

Chap. XI. — The Jesuits on Lying and Slander, 110 

Chap. XII. — Cautions to Americans in View of modern Romish Exam- 
ples of Lying and Perjury, 121 



(11) 



12 



CONTEXTS. 



PART II. 




ROMANISM THE ENEMY OF MANKINt). 

I. — The Case stated, and Principles of Judgment, 

II. — Popery a Religion, a trading Corporation, a Government 

III. — Operation and pernicious Eflfects of the System, 

IV. — The Celibacy of the Clergy, aud the Confessional, 

V. — Reasons for a thorough Consideration of this Subject 

VI. — The Voice of History and Experience, 

VII. — Bishop Kenrick's audacious Defence, 

VIII. — Testimony of Romish Priests, .... 

IX. — The Result. — Infamoxis Character of the Romish Cor 
poration, 



131 
134 
138 
148 
155 
161 
172 
191 

206 



PART III. 

ROMANISM AN IMPOSITION AND A FORGERY. 

Chap. I. — Presumptive Evidence of the Fact, 212 

Chap. II. — Argument from History 234 

HAP. III. — History of the Formation of the Romish Corporation by 

Fraud and Forgery, 239 

Chap. IV. — Nicholas I. and the Forgeries and Frauds of the Dark 

Ages, . . . . ' 274 

Chap. V. — The Rock Peter and the Frauds of Leo the Great, . . SD6 
Chap. VI. — The Plots and Frauds of Gregory VII., the patron Saint 

of the Bishops of the United States. — The Bishops' Oath, . 331 
Chap. VII. — Characteristics and Developments of Popery during the 

Era of Gregory VIT., • • 342 



PART IV. 

THE JUDGMENT OP GOD AND THE BURNING OP BABYLON. 

Chap. I. ~ Babylon on Fire, 365 

Chap. II. — The Fire of God, 371 

Chap. III. — Protestantism defended, 391 

HAP. IV. — The Treason of the Romish Bishops in America, . . 399 

Chap. V. — Appeal for the Judgment of God, 408 

Chap. YT. — What ought to be done ? 412 



THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED. 



INTRODUCTION. 
CHAPTER I. 

THE CASE STATED AND THE ISSUE DEFIN^ID. 

The Pilgrim Fathers of New England and the other 
Protestant founders of this great nation came to this 
continent, soon after the reformation had shaken the Eu- 
ropean world, to lay the foundations of a new order of 
things, bv erecting a new social system upon the great 
principles of civil and religious liberty. 

As one illustration of the results of this colonization, 
we now witness in New England a state of society which, 
-with all its defects, has never been exceeded, and rarely 
equalled, on earth. Our state of society, too, is the result 
of the principles and institutions of our fathers. It was 
their glory, in their own esteem, that they had receded to 
the uttermost point from the corruptions and pollutions 
of Rome in doctrine, organization, and morals. Their 
2 (^3) 



14 



THE PAPAL coN^^PiriAOy EXPOSED. 



foundation was the Bible, and the Bible alone — not the 
Bible neutralized or rendered poisonous by the traditions 
of man ; the Bible in the hands of the churches and of 
the people, and not in the hands of a hierarchy falsely 
calling herself the church. Under it have sprung up free 
governments in church and state, systems of education, 
purity in the family state, regenerated ministers and 
churches, benevolent enterprise, science, literature, and 
the arts. 

Results similar to these are also extensively witnessed 
throughout our land ; and it is our fixed purpose, by the 
aid of God, to make them universal. At this we aim ; 
because it is our firm conviction that we, as a Protestant 
nation, have received our principles from God, and that 
he has assigned to us the sublime mission and the glorious 
destiny of making them universal. 

But lo, whilst we are obediently moving on to attain 
our destiny, an assault is made upon us by a system unique 
and peculiar, and assuming the style and title of the 
Church of Rome, the Mother and Mistress of all churches. 

We turn to listen to her words. They are bold and 
lofty. Laying aside all ceremony, she at once denounces 
us and our fathers as in rebellion against her, our only 
lawful and religious sovereign, and therefore against 
Almighty God himself. 

We stop to consider more particularly the system which 
makes such charges and puts forth such pretensions. 

We find it to be a system nominally Christian, yet not 
friendly to other Christian bodies, but excluding and 
anathematizing them all. It is confined to no nation or 
government, but exists under all. Its parts in various 
nations are not, like other religious bodies, independent of 
each other, but are all organized as one compact system 
around one head. That head is a temporal ruler in a 



THE CASE STATED AXD THE ISSUE DEFINED. 



15 



territory exclusively his own. He is also a spiritual 
ruler, and to some extent a temporal ruler, over his sub- 
jects in all lands. He claims supremacy over all earthly 
governments ; and, so far as he has had at any time the 
ability, has exercised this supremacy, and at all times 
aims to secure the requisite power. 

In our land the i^ystem has great and constantly in- 
creasing numbers. Seven archbishops, thirty-two bishops, 
one thousand five hundred and- seventy-four priests, and a 
population of three millions are subjected to its sway. 

It has exerted great power in politics. Politicians 
have courted the favor of those who sway this mass of 
^•oters. It has also constantly aimed, through pecuniary 
and political motives, to paralyze and control the Protes- 
tant political and secular press. 

It has under its control numerous and dangerous or- 
ganized societies, composed of unmarried men and women 
withdrawn from domestic life, and specially sworn to ex- 
tend and defend the authority of the Pope of Rome, the 
head of the great system. 

It is organizing seductive and proselyting systems of 
education, and aims by means of them to corrupt and en- 
list in their vast schemes the children of Protestant par- 
ents. It has at this time twenty colleges, with two thou- 
sand two hundred and forty-seven students ; twenty:nine 
theological seminaries, with upwards of four hundred 
students ; and one hundred and twelve female academies. 

It is accumulating property and aiming to concentrate 
it in the hands of the bishops — the sworn vassals of a for- 
eign monarch. It meets us at every turn in this and in all 
lands. It shows its true spirit as fast as it gains power : 
and it significantly threatens us with future retribution 
whenever it shall gain universal sway. 



CHAPTER II. 



ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE SPIRIT AND AIMS OF POPERY. 

We will .illustrate these statements by a few impressive 
facts. It has ever been the policy of the Papists to charge 
on Protestants a tendency to all kinds of radical and dis- 
organizing errors, and to assert that the only defence 
against it is submission to the Papacy. Whenever such ten- 
dencies appear to exist in fact, the Papists are emboldened 
to endeavor to produce a reaction towards their system. 
Accordingly, when signs of such a state of things began to 
appear in New England, they put forth new efforts to 
make proselytes ; nor were ^those efforts entirely fruitless. 

In particular, one well-known personage, of New Eng- 
land parentage and education, Orestes A. Brownson, who 
had himself neared the gulf of infidelity and atheism, un- 
able to extricate himself from the mazes of scepticism, fled 
for refuge to Home, and now pronounces the experiment 
of our fathers a failure, and calls on us to return from our 
revolt. Thus, in this centre of New England, this bold 
proposal is made by a descendant of the Puritans to the 
American mind. Our system is pronounced a failure. 
Romanism is offered to us in its place ; yea, urged upon 
us as our only refuge from ruin. 

Listen to the following words, in which he discloses 
not only his own feelings, but also the purposes of the 
Papal corporation : 

(16) 



SPIRIT AND AIMS OF POPEKV. 



IT 



" The church may be assailed, will be assailed ; but we 
know it is founded on a rock ; and the gates of hell shall 
not prevail against it. It is now firmly established in 
this country ; and persecution will but cause it to thrive. 
Our countrymen may be grieved that it is so ; but it is 
useless for them to kick against the decrees of Almighty 
God. They have had an open field and fair play for 
Protestantism. Here Protestantism has had free scope, 
has reigned without a rival, and proved what she could 
do, and that her best is evil ; for the very good she boasts 
is not hers. A new day is dawning on this chosen land ; a 
new chapter is about to open in our history, and the church 
to assume her rightful position and influence. Ours shall 
yet become consecrated ground ; and hero the kingdom 
of God's dear Son shall be established. Our hills and 
valleys shall yet echo to the convent bell. No matter 
who writes, who declaims, who intrigues, who is alarmed, 
or what leagups are formed ; this is to be a Catholic coun- 
try ; and from Maine to Georgia, from the broad Atlantic 
to the broader Pacific, the clean sacrifice is to be offered 
daily for the quick and the dead." 

But these words are not original with him ; they are 
but an echo of the voice of the church. The society at 
Lyons for the propagation of the faith, a Papal organiza- 
tion of great power, to which I shall hereafter recur 
again, says the same. Speaking of the discovery of 
America by Columbus, and of the fact that France 
and Spain took possession for the church, the society 
says, — 

" At a late hour heresy made her appearance, and led 
to the coasts of North America the most violent of her 
disciples — the restless Puritans. Soon other sects cast 
their scum on the same shores, and Protestantism gained 



18 , THE PAPAL CON-SPIRACY EXPOSED, 

sovereignty in the thirteen colonies which were destined 
to become the United States. Yet the Catholic church 
could never abandon the invaded territory." 

After unfolding her plans and her vigorous prosecution 
of them, she says, — 

" In view of such beneficial results, we may well believe 
that the creation of the American episcopate will rank 
as one of the most important events in the ecclesiastical 
history of the nineteenth century. Its efficacious activity 
recalls to mind something of those labors of organi- 
zation- by which the illustrious bishops of primitive times, 
among the depraved Romans, the Arians, and the bar- 
barians, provided for the future welfare of modern 
nations." 

Nay, Mr. B. openly confesses that there is a system de- 
signed to exterminate Protestantism : "Not by force," he 
says, " but by argument and conviction. The church," he 
says, " never uses force." Just as true as this has been, so 
true will it be when they gain the power. We see the parts, 
therefore, of a universal system ; and they agree with the 
declaration of the Duke of Richmond. He, as is well 
known, declared that there was a combination of the 
despots of the old world to destroy our institutions in 
order to sustain their own. This and other statements 
of a similar kind will be fully detailed in the succeeding 
portions of this work. Let no man, then, call it illiberali- 
ty or persecution if we subject this arrogant and in- 
vading system to a thorough scrutiny. We are still the 
majority. We have liberty and a free press; and God 
has raised us up, given us the power, and calls us to the 
work. Yet I desire to say, in passing, that my confidence 
of success does not rest on man. There is no sufficient 
power to prevent the spread of that system but God. Its 



SPIRIT AND AIMS OF P0P1:RY, 



19 



past sway is owing to its accordance with human depravi- 
ty ; and the same cause will give it power in time to come 
if God does not interpose. But his glory calls for its 
ruin. He is strong enough to judge it ; and he will. 
That the time of this judgment is near, gathering signs 
foretell. The hosts are moving to the field of Arma- 
geddon. 



CHAPTER III. 



THE CENTRAL POWER OF POPERY. 

So long as men admit tho being of a God and believe 
in the immortality of the soul, their most powerful motives 
will be derived from their hopes and fears as to eternal 
life. It matters not whether these hopes or fears are 
founded on truth or falsehood, genuine religion or super- 
stition ; so long as they exist they will sway the masses 
of mankind with resistless power. The sway of Popery 
over the popular mind is derived from this source. It all 
depends upon a false answer to the question, " What shall 
I do to be saved ? " 

The sublimity and importance of the ideas called up 
before the mind by this brief question I suppose no one 
will deny. It calls up God ; a spiritual world ; a moral 
government ; a law and its penalty ; a revolt ; an atone- 
ment ; reconciliation to God, resulting in heaven ; eternal 
alienation, resulting in hell. But what has it to do with 
the central error of Romanism and the main issue be- 
tween Romanists and Protestants? Much every way, as 
I shall soon show. 

The answer to this question given by the great re- 
formers is plain and distinct. It unfolds God, the correla- 
tion of the mind to him, the nature of his law, and of life 
in him by love, and shows that this perfects the mind and 
conducts it to its true end. It unfolds sin in its nature, 

(20) 



THE CENTRAL POWER OF POPERT. 



21 



forms, and effects upon the mind — its guilt, and desert, 
and eternal consequences. It unfolds the divinity and 
incarnation of the Son of God and his atonement, and the 
possibility of pardon on the ground of repentance, faith, 
and a holy life. And then, with the apostles, it says, 
" Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved." 
This is the answer of the whole evangelical Protestant 
world. In this they all agree. With them the church 
of Rome does not agree. Teaching a hell, she admits the 
need of the question, but answers it falsely. Her answer 
is. Believe in the church of Rome, and in Christ as the 
church of Rome believes in him, and thou shalt be saved ; 
believe not, and thou shalt be damned. 

But you reply, I have had the Bible from childhood ; I 
have studied it ; I have been aided in my study by the 
instruction of holy men ; I think I know what sin is, and 
that I have repented of it, and trusted in Christ, and am 
striving to cultivate all the Christian graces and to lead 
a holy life ; and through the mercy of God, through Christ, 
I hope for heaven. Are not my hopes well founded ? But 
do you believe in the church of Rome ? No ; I believe in 
the Bible. But do you believe in the Bible in her sense 
and according to her interpretation ? In some things I 
do, and in some I do not. In a great multitude of things I 
regard her as utterly misinterpreting and radically cor- 
rupting the word of God ; and, on the whole, I regard that 
church as the man of sin spoken of by Paul and the great 
harlot spoken of by John. Then of course you cannot be 
saved ; since you not only do not believe in the church of 
Rome, but blaspheme her — the bride, the spouse, of 
Christ. But where has God told me to believe in the 
church of Rome ? My Bible says nothing about it. It 
says, " Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be 
saved." And Paul, in his letter to the church of Rome, 



22 



THE PAPAL COJfSPIRACY EXPOSED. 



says, " Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall 
be saved ; " but not a syllable about believing in the church 
of Rome any where. 

Now, what has the church of Rome to say to all this, 
think you ? Why, as follows : — 

1. You cannot tell what the canon of the Bible is ex- 
cept through the church of Rome. 

2. After the canon is made out, you cannot so tell what 
the Bible means, without the aid of the church of Rome, 
that it is possible for you to exercise saving faith. 

3. The Bible, without the traditions of the church of 
Rome, is so defective and imperfect that it is not safe to 
depend upon it. 

4. There is only one thing upon which you can depend 
safely; and that is the church of Rome. Through her you 
can tell what" the canon of the Bible is ; through her you 
can tell what it means ; through her you can have all its 
deficiencies supplied ; and thus through her you can trust 
in Christ, be holy, and be saved. 

But what is this church of Rome ? Does it mean the 
whole body of believers under the pope ? No, indeed ; 
we are not Congregationalists. It is not their duty to 
judge or teach ; but to hear their superiors, believe and , ! 
obey. What, then, is the church ? If you would know 
definitely, then hear. It is the body of bishops in union 
with the pope, their head ; and they are inspired, not as 
individuals, but in their corporate capacity. This is th@ 
church that we mean. It is the ecclesia docens — the teach- 
ing church. It is an inspired, infallible, indefectible body 
of teachers. These, as a corporation, are, as it were, an 
incarnation of God — the body of Christ. Through them ^ 
God speaks and acts. Through them he interprets the [ \ 
Bible and settles all questions of doctrine. Through I ] 
them he governs the church. Through no other body of i 



THE CEXTRIL POWER OF POPERY. 



23 



men does he so act or speak. If you hear them, you hear 
him ; if you reject them, you reject him. They occupy 
precisely the same place relatively to the world that the 
apostles did of old. Indeed, they are the successors of 
the apostles, and inherit all their prerogatives and powers ; 
and as a rejection of the apostles would have been fatal 
then, so is a rejection of this inspired and infallible body 
of t^ieir successors now. Therefore, if you do not believe 
in the church of Rome, you cannot believe in Christ or be 
saved. Believe, therefore, in the church of Rome, and 
through her in Christ, and thou shalt be saved, is still the 
repl}'. 

We have thus arrived at what is, beyond all doubt, the 
central power of the Romish system. This is the great 
citadel of spiritual Babylon. On this point comes up the 
main, the dividing, issue between Romanists and Prot- 
estants. The demand of faith in the Romish corporation 
as an infallible church, as essential to salvation, is the 
vital power of the great Romish apostasy ; its denial is the 
fundamental position of Protestantism. 



CHAPTER IV. 



THE PRECEDING STATEMENTS CONFIRMED. 

That the rejection of the pope and the corporation of 
bishops is the essence of Protestantism is exceedingly 
manifest, as will appear from the following among other 
reasons : — 

1. Though there are numerous other errors in the 
system, — as image worship, transubstantiation, the mass, 
purgatory, <fe;c., — yet any one of them can be removed, yea, 
many of them, and yet leave the mainspring of the system 
in powerful operation ; but take this corporation away, and 
the system dies. As an ox smitten on the side does not 
die, nor if you cut oif a leg or a horn does he die, but if 
you smite him on his forehead, on his brain, his whole system 
is dissolved, and he dies, so is it here. This is the forehead 
beneath which lies the brain of the system ; smite it, and 
it dies. God has seven hammers, any one of which can 
smite it with omnipotent power ; how much more all I In 
the proper place I shall produce them. My object now is 
simply to bring forward the system and show where to smite. 

2. Till this is smitten down, it is a wall of defence ; 
around all the interior absurdities of the system. In vain ! 
do you object against them ; it is all set aside as mere pri- 1 
vate judgment. You deem them false, say they ; but what | 
is the worth of your individual opinion ? The church I 
deems them true ; and who is most likely to be right ? ! 

(24) 



THE PRECEDING STATEMENTS CONFIRMED. 



25 



Has she not God's promise to be with her always and to 
guide her into all truth? 

3. It effects a ruinous perversion of the principle of 
faith — one of the most important and powerful of the soul, 
and the most injurious in its perversion. Any absurdity, 
however great, once taken into this enclosure, is exempted 
from the scrutiny of reason, and belief is debased to re- 
ceive it. 

4. It makes the system essentially, logically, and of 
necessity, intolerant and exterminating, regarding all 
other systems as the gospel does idolatry — i. e., as rebel- 
lion against God. Many Protestants do not seem to be 
aware of this, and think that Protestants ought to regard 
Romanism as one of the man}^ fraternal Christian sects. 
But they mistake its necessary logical relation to all other 
bodies. It does not acknowledge any of them as any part 
of the church of Christ, nor as Christians. It does not 
ask to be put on a level with them. It has no part or lot 
with them. They are sons of Belial, all of them — 
enemies of God, children of perdition, on the road to hell ; 
and its only duty and B^vowed end is to convert or extermi- 
nate them. 

Indeed, it denounces them all as pagans. The cele- 
brated Brownson, speaking, as he declares, under the 
sanction of the American Papal bishops, says, (Quarterly 
Review, January, 1854, p. 96,) " Our American society is 
pagan, not Christian.''^ Hence he affirms that the Papists 
are situated as were the first Christians under pagan Rome, 
and that they are an insulated system in which are all the 
hopes of society. 

"Ahnost every where the faithful, as under the pagan 
emperors of Rome, must constitute a society of their own, 
independent of the pagan society in the midst of which 
they live, complete in itself, and adequate to all social 
3 



26 



THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED. 



wants and necessities. This Catholic society is in the old 
world the remains of a once general Catholic society ; in 
our country it is, as under the pagan Cgesars, the germ or 
nucleus of a new Catholic state. All the hopes of the old 
world centre in these Catholic remnants ; all the hopes of 
the new in this Catholic germ. It is this Catholic society, 
sustaining itself or forming itself under overshadowing 
heathenism, that we must consult in our addresses and dis- 
cussions. To save the non- Catholic society from continued 
decline and corruption is as hopeless as it was to save the 
Jewish state under the Roman governors, or pagan society 
under Nero or Diocletian. The thing is out of the ques- 
tion ; because modern society, as distinguished from the 
Catholic, has in itself no recuperative energy, no germ of 
life. All society must conform to the principles of our holy 
religion, and spring from Catholicity as its root, or sooner 
or later lapse into barbarism. The living germ in all 
modern nations, the nucleus of all future living society, 
is in the Catholic portion of the population. They are the 
salt of the earth ; they are the leaven that is to leaven 
the whole lump." — Quarterly Review^ pp. 97, 98. 

The feelings of some Romanists, and even their com- 
mon sense, may revolt from this ; nay, in view of the 
debased Romanist masses among us, it is both impudent 
and ludicrous ; but it is the stern, inevitable, logical 
result of the system, avowed in public formulas, fully 
brought out by Mr. B. 

" ' It is the intention of the pope to possess this coun- 
try.' Undoubtedly. ' In this intention he is aided by 
the Jesuits and all the Catholic prelates and priests.' 
Undoubtedly, if they are faithful to their religion. * If 
the Catholic church becomes predominant here, Protes- 
tants will all be exterminated.' We hope so, if extermi- 
nated as Protestants by being converted to the Catholic 
faith." 



THE PRECEDING STATEMENTS CONFIRMED. 27 

He at this time deems it politic to disclaim in behalf 
of the church all force but moral, and sajs that is enough, 
and also concedes equal civil rights. His subsequent 
doctrine as to extermination will depend upon the power 
of the church. He then proceeds : — 

" Save, then, in the discharge of our civil duties and in 
the ordinary business of life, there is and can be no har- 
mony between Catholics and Protestants. The two par- 
ties stand opposed ; separated, not by a mere paper wall, 
as some of the sects are, but by a great gulf. The peo- 
ple of Christ (i. e., the Romanists) are a peculiar people ; 
they stand out from the world, distinct, separate ; and 
must, if they will be the people of Christ. They can 
have no fellowship with Belial, nor live in peace and har- 
mony with his children, (i. e., the Protestants.") 

From such views he anticipates a Protestant reaction ; 
but he treats it with supreme contempt. He says, — 

" The signs of the times seem to indicate that the sev- 
eral tribes of Goths, Yandals, Huns, and other barbarians 
are forming a league for a new invasion of Rome. Well, 
be it so. He that dwelleth in the heavens shall laugh at 
them, and the Lord shall deride them. The Episcopalians 
may read their destiny in that of the old Donatists, whom 
in many respects they resemble ; and all the Protestant 
sects combined are not so formidable to the church as were 
at one period the old Arians. The church triumphed over 
the Arians ; she will triumph over the Protestants. A 
union whose principle is hatred will not long subsist, but 
will soon break asunder. Protestantism is doomed. The 
devil may be very active and full of wrath and utter 
great swelling words for a season, because he knows 
that his time is short ; but Protestantism must go the way 
of all the earth." 

This seems to be sufficiently explicit. Yet doubtless 



28 



THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED. 



there will bo still some charitable souls who w\W think 
it illiberal to suspect the RomaPxists of ulterior evil 
designs, and call even argun:ient in self-defence persecu- 
tion, and wonder why we will persecute a sect of Chris- 
tians who have been so far liberalized by modern progress 
as to outgrow their ancient bigotry and exclusiveness. 

5. So far as it is believed, it becomes a corporation in- 
vested with the highest powers of despotism that the mind 
of man can conceive. It has the monopoly, not of bank- 
ing, or corn, or wheat, but of the grace of God, of heaven 
and hell ; and such a body will bind men to their sway 
by the whole weight of eternal joys and eternal woes. 
It has logically carried out its views ; and kings and na- 
tions have quailed before its terrors. Its logical tenden- 
cies are still the same. Nothing but the counterpoise of 
Protestantism prevents it. On this it gnashes its teeth, 
and longs to exterminate it. To be sure, they tell us that 
it will be safe to put such power into the hands of such a 
corporation ; for God will not let his bride, his wife, 
abuse it. Gentle souls! As if the experience of more 
than a thousand years had thrown no light on that point! 

6. It urges, in the nature of the case, the most important 
and momentous claim that a body of men can make. It 
involves not merely a question of truth or falsehood, as in 
the case of common historical facts. It admits of no mid- 
dle ground between the highest and most momentous truth 
and a falsehood of the deepest and most damning guilt. 
God either sanctions the claim with his whole soul, or 
with his whole soul he abhors it. 

7. If such a question is involved, it can be settled. 
There must be truth on such a point. Interest and | 
organic power may resist ; but God is almighty ; and ^ 
he can so wield truth that they will give way. 

8. It is the great question of the age. For three hundred 



THE PRECEDING STATEMENTS CONFIRMED. 



29 



years Christendom has been divided into two contending 
camps. Things cannot remain so : there must be a de- 
cision ; there will be. The systems are diametrically op- 
posed : one must and will exterminate the other. But it 
will not be without a moral conflict unknown before — 
the battle of the great day of God Almighty. 

From this brief view of the state of the case one thing- 
is clear — that it is a system that ought, especially at this 
time, to be thoroughly understood ; not misrepresented, 
not dealt with on grounds of prejudice, but studied, 
analyzed, understood in the light of history, philosophy, 
and Scripture. 

We ought not to be simple, credulous, and the dupes of 
craft and delusion. The main stress of the conflict will 
be upon such points as these : Is there evidence in the 
nature of things, or in the word or in the providence of 
God, as developed in history, that the claims of this cor- 
poration are well founded ? Or do they prove them to be 
false, impious, and destructive ? 

In reply to these inquiries, I shall undertake to show 
that; so far is the Romish corporation from being an 
ordinance of God, it is rather a fraudulent conspiracy 
against the interests of God and humanity ; that it is so 
far from having its basis in Scripture and reason that it 
is rather an imposture and a. forgery : that it is so far 
from being God's messenger of blessings to men that it 
is rather the enemy of mankind and hostile to the best 
interests of society ; and that Protestantism, so* far from 
deserving the anathemas and curses heaped upon it by 
that proud and aspiring corporation, is founded in truth, 
is honorable to God, and is the only sure defence of our 
country and of mankind. 



PAET I. 

ROMANISM A FRAUDULENT AND PERSECUTING 
CONSPIRACY. 



CHAPTER I. 

THE RIGHTS OF MEN AS TO TRUTH AND FIDELITY 
INVADED BY ROMANISM. 

The nature of man as a social being is siicli that his 
fundamental necessity is a knowledge of the truth. He is 
called on to act in a great system with man and with 
God. How, then, can he act aright unless he knows what 
that system is and what are his relations to it? How can 
man act safely and confidently in his intercourse with man 
unless he knows the real state and relations of the things 
and events around him? Every man, therefore, has an 
indefeasible claim on his fellow-man to know from him 
the truth. To establish and justify the utterance of false- 
hood, is to strike a blow at the very basis of the social 
system. 

If, then, all men have a right to know the truth as to 
God and man, no man or body of men has a right to 

(ao) 



THE RICHTS OP MEN INYADED BY ROMANISM. 



31 



delude them, even under the pretence of promoting their 
good, or for the sake of any alleged general interest. 

All men have a right also to truth and fidelity as to 
promises and contracts. 

They have no less' a right to defence in a free use of 
their powers in the study of God and his laws and works 
and truth in general. ^ 

All these rights the Romish corporation invades. In 
fact, it is a conspiracy to defraud men of all their rights, 
and to disfranchise and extirpate all who refuse to submit 
to its claims. 

They take the ground that no man has a right to know 
the truth from them in any case where they regard it as 
inconsistent with tlieir own interests. 

That no promises or oaths are binding to those who 
oppose their interests and renounce their authority ; and 
that all the civil and political rights of those who thus 
oppose their interests are forfeited, as well as their prop- 
erty and lives. 

A corporation which takes this ground is, in the strictest 
and most absolute sense, a fraudulent conspiracy against 
the interests and the rights of mankind. 

In discussing these allegations, we should not deem it 
sufficient to look at the professions made by the advocates 
of the corporation when weak and in the minority, but 
should ask. What are the principles of the corporation 
itself? What has it always avowed and done whenever 
no external power has prevented its full development? 
These inquiries shall be answered by an appeal to history. 

No system has a history more full and definite. The 
tendencies which we shall allege have imbodied them- 
selves in facts ; indeed, its history is one great tragedy. 
It is like the prophet's roll — written, within and without, 
with mourning, lamentation, and woe. 



CHAPTER II. 



POPISH PRINCIPLES OF VERACITY AND FIDELITY. 

No man can understand the Papal church until he has 
thoroughly learned that it is a corporation which, on fixed 
principle, authorizes the practice of perfidy in its own de- 
fence. It is no less certain that no man is qualified to 
deal with the system and its defenders until their use of 
falsehood is perfectly understood. 

There is among Protestants a tacit understanding that 
a solemn assertion of falsehood before God is wrong ; 
and when ministers, bishops, and universities swear to the 
truth of certain assertions, it seems dishonorable not to 
believe them. 

But he who does believe them in any case affecting the 
interests of their religion is simple. In precisely such 
circumstances, their most eminent popes and prelates have 
not hesitated to equivocate, deceive, and even directly and 
unequivocally to lie. Yea, their principles offer rewards 
to such lying, as eminently meritorious in the sight of God. 

It is, therefore, no. want of charity, it is no want of 
magnanimity, to deny any credence to any of the advocates 
of this system on their mere word and in cases affecting 
its interests. It would be, on the other hand, inexcusable 
weakness and simplicity to believe them. In addition to 
the effects of the perverted teaching of this corporation, 
there is also the influence of the fact, which I shall soon 

(32) 



POPISH PRIXCIPLBS OF TERACITT AND FIDELITY. 33 



develop, that it is so founded on fraud and forgeries that 
it cannot bear the scrutiny of an impartial historian. 
But it is obvious,, that if a true view of history is ruinous 
to powerful existing organizations, even if they were not 
educated to lie, great would be the temptation to color, 
distort, or deny the real facts of history. But if any cor- 
poration is from education prone to falsify history, and is 
under the influence of base examples and principles, how 
much more sure the results ! If, therefore, of the Romish 
corporation all these things are true ; if a true view of 
history will destroy them ; if they are trained to the use of 
forgery and fraud, and are under the influence of base 
principles and precedents, — we need to be fully aware of 
these facts. For this purpose I propose to state at some 
length what are the genuine principles and what has been 
the practice of the Romish corporation as it regards lying 
and perjury for the good of the church. 

I have no intention, in this inquiry, to bring any sweep- 
ing charges against every individual who is found in the 
Catholic laity. I do not confound them with the corpora- 
tion by w^hich they are ruled, and of which few of them 
study or understand the real principles. To a great ex- 
tent, they are more deceiv.ed than deceiving. Nor do I 
intend to overlook the fact that there are, in the great 
body of Romish ecclesiastics and historians, a few writers 
of very honorable principles and practice. Thus I do not 
intend to include in any one general statement persons 
wliose principles and practice are so unlike as those of 
Pascal, Fenelou, Dupin, Sarpi, De Thou, Daunou, on the 
one hand, and Escobar, Molina, Baronius, Bellarmine, De 
Maistre, &c., on the other. In a body so divided into 
parties and factions as the chuixih of Rome has always 
been, and in which characters arid principles are so various, 
all indiscriminating charges on masses are to be utterly 



34 



THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED. 



reprobated. Nor do I intend to hurt the feelings of any 
by charging on them the belief of principles which they 
disavow in theory and repudiate in practice. 

But, as a great conflict is before us, I do propose to in- 
quire, What ought a wise, honorable, just, and benevolent 
Protestant to think of the principles and influence of the 
great Romish system that opposes him, as it regards speak- 
ing the truth, and also as to the observance of truth, 
as it regards history, reputation, contracts, covenants, and 
oaths? This is essential, — 

1. As a safeguard against the abuse of that benevolent 
and honorable simplicity of unsuspecting minds on which 
unprincipled deceivers are ready at all times to practice. 
If we are to deal with a society who have reduced the art 
of lying or equivocation to system, we ought to know 
them, and not be overreached by them. 

2. As essential in order to aid in forming a judgment as 
to the real facts of history. If a whole body is tempted, 
by fear of ruin, to misrepresent facts, we ought ever to 
bear it in mind. 

3. As having a direct bearing on the logic of the main 
question — the existence of an infallible corporation ; for, 
if in the middle ages the Romish corporation decreed what 
all concede to be false and immoral, their claims are 
destroyed. 

I come, therefore, directly to the question. How shall 
these principles be ascertained ? What is the highest and 
most decisive evidence ? And I reply. Not the testimony of 
British laymen or ecclesiastics in the Papal church, who 
had in this age of light a high interest to deny certain 
allegations as to the doctrines of that church, in order to 
gain political privileges,* whilst still they had no power to 
settle points of faith ; nor the testimony of foreign uni- 
versities, who ai'e equally devoid of power to settle points 
of faith. 



POPISH PRINCIPLES OF VERACITY AND FIDELITY. 35 

I make these remarks in order to introduce the ex- 
perience of Great Britain upon the point in question. 
This will open a most instructive chapter of history, which 
the people of this nation would do well to study. Ques- 
tions are at issue in this country as to the relations of the 
Papacy to all civil governments which are of fundamental 
moment. They will be met with the whole energy of the 
Papal corporation. We need fully to understand ,the 
ground on which we stand. They will affect also every 
historical or religious question that may come up in deal- 
ing with that corporation. 



CHAPTER III. 

PAPAL PROFESSIONS IN GREAT BRITAIN AND AMERICA. 

During the long controversy on Catholic emancipation, 
incessant efforts were made by Charles Butler, a learned 
Popish lawyer, and by others, to convince the British public 
that it was safe to restore to British Romanists full politi- 
cal powers and privileges, on the ground that the Romish 
system did not justify a violation of faith or of good 
morals. To obtain satisfaction for the British government, 
appeal was made to individual divines and to certain foreign 
universities to ascertain whether the real principles of the 
Papacy justified the pope in deposing heretical monarchg 
and absolving their subjects from the oath of allegiance, 
and, in general, the violation of faith with heretics. 

The universities addressed were those of Louvain, 
Douay, and Paris, in France, and Alcala, Yalladolid, 
and Salamanca, in Spain. The faculties of all these uni- 
versities unanimously declared that the principles of the 
Romish system did not justify any of these things. They 
were even, in the words of the University of Louvain, 
" struck with astonishment that such questions should, at 
the end of this eighteenth century, be proposed to any 
learned body by inhabitants of a kingdom that glories in tlie ; 
talent and discernment of its natives." The University I 
of Alcala does not hesitate to say that those who imputed i 
to the Romish church such doctrines were instigated by j 



PAPAL PROFESSIONS IN GREAT BRITAIN AND AMERICA. 37 

the devil, even as of old the Jews were instigated by him 
to slander Christ. 

The reply of the University of Douay, as the shortest, 
we will quote from Butler's Historical Memoirs, vol. i., 
pp. 445-448. 

Extracted from the Register of the Sacred Faculty of Divinity 
of the University of Douay. 

January 5, 1789. 

At a meeting of the faculty of divinity of the Univer- 
sity of Douay, the dean informed them that the Catholics 
of England were desirous of the opinion of the faculty 
upon three questions, the tenor of which was as follows : — 

1. Has the pope, by virtue of any authority, power, or 
jurisdiction derived to him from God, or have the cardi- 
nals, or even the church itself, any civil authority, civil 
power, or civil jurisdiction whatsoever in the kingdom 
of England ? 

2. Can the pope, the cardinals, or the church herself 
absolve or free the subjects of the King of England from 
their oath of allegiance ? 

3. Is there any principle of the Catholic faith by which 
Catholics are justified in not keeping faith with heretics 
or other persons who differ from them in religious opinions ? 

These questions first having been privately considered 
by each professor of divinity, and afterwards having been 
attentively discussed by the public meeting, — 

To the first and second of them the sacred faculty 
answers, That no power whatsoever, in civil or temporal 
concerns, was given by the Almighty, either to the pope, 
the cardinals, or the church herself ; and consequently 
that kings and sovereigns are not, in temporal concerns, 
subject by the ordination of God to any ecclesiastical 
power whatsoever ; neither can their subjects, by any 
authority granted to the pope or the church from above, 
be freed from their obedience or absolved from their oath 
qf allegiance. 

This is the doctrine which the doctors and professors of 
4 



38 



THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED. 



divinity hold and teach in our schools ; and this all the 
candidates for degrees in divinity maintain in their public 
theses. 

To the third question the sacred faculty answers, That 
there is no principle of the Catholic faith by which Catho- 
lics are justified in not keeping faith with heretics who 
differ from them in religious opinions. On the contrary, 
it is the unanimous doctrine of Catholics, that the respect 
due to the name of God, so called to witness, requires 
that the, oath be inviolably kept to whomsoever it is 
pledged, whether Catholic, heretic, or infidel. 

Done on the day and in the year above stated, by order 
of the illustrious lords of the holy faculty. 

(Signed) Bacq, beadle and secretary. 

It agrees with the original. Witness my hand. 

Bacq, beadle and secretary. 

"We, the sheriffs of the town of Douay and justices of 
the police, certify, to all whom it may concern, that the 
Sieur Bacq, who has signed the above deliberation, is 
beadle, as well as secretary and registrar, to the faculty 
of holy theology in the university of this town, and that 
to all acts so signed by him credence is to be given in and 
out of court. In witness whereof, we have caused these 
presents to be signed by one of the registrars of the said 
town, and the seal of the said town, where neither stamped 
paper nor a small seal are in use, to be fixed to them. 
The 12th January, 1789. 

Herbaut, by order. 



The Answer of the Faculty of the Canon and Civil Law 
in the same University of Douay. 

Having seen and attentively considered the above 
written questions and the answers of the sacred faculty 
of divinity to them, the faculties both of the canon law 
and of the civil law declare that they, without hesitation 
or doubt, concur in the aforesaid answers of the 5th 
instant, and that they have always firmly believed and 



PAPAL PROFESSIONS IN GREAT BRITAIN AND AMERICA. 39 

uniformly taught that neither the cardinals, nor the pope, 
nor even the church herself have any jurisdiction or 
power, by divine right, over the temporals of kings, 
sovereigns, or their subjects ; and consequently that kings 
and sovereigns are not, in temporal concerns, subject by 
the ordination of God to any ecclesiastical power whatso- 
ever ; nor can their subjects, by any authority granted to 
the pope or the church from above, be freed from their 
obedience or absolved from their oaths of allegiance. 

Further : the doctors of these faculties declare, That an 
oath implies an obligation of natural and divine right, by 
which the party is bound to perform the promise contained 
in his oath to whomsoever that promise be made, whether 
he be a Catholic, a heretic, or an infidel ; and that no 
person, through pretext of heresy or infidelity in the party 
to whom the promise is given, can be released from his 
obligation. The Catholic religion, far from admitting any 
principle by which oaths can be dispensed with, holds such 
perjuries in abhorrence. 

In testimony of which we have ordered our scribe to 
sign this instrument. Done at Douay this 9th of January, 
1789. 

Simon, beadle and secretary. 

We, the sheriffs of the t-own of Douay and justices of 
the police, certify to all whom it may concern, that the 
Sieur Simon, who has signed the above deliberation, is 
beadle, as well as secretary and registrar, to the faculty 
of civil and canon law in the university of this town, and 
that to all acts so signed by him credence is to be given in 
and out of court. In witness whereof, we have caused these 
presents to be signed by one of the registrars of the said 
town, and the seal of the said town, where neither stamped 
paper nor a small seal are in use, to be affixed to them. 
Tlie 12th January, 1789. 

Herabut, by order. 

The effect of such assertions on Protestants, ignorant 
of the mazes of Komanism, would of necessity be great. 
Nor do we wonder at it. Men of such eminence and 



40 



THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED. 



learning, they would naturally conclude, know what the 
Romish system is ; and we ought not to distrust such confi- 
dent assertions. 

The Romish committee of Ireland in 1792, in the name 
of all their Popish countrymen, and the Irish bishops, 
Murray, Doyle, and Kelley, in their examination before 
the British Commons in 1826, made similar protestations 
against the doctrines charged. 

The past history of Great Britain ought to have taught 
them caution ; but they believed, and, to a certain extent, 
have acted accordingly. 

PAPAL PROFESSIONS IN AMERICA. 

Even in Boston, at a time when the public mind began 
to be aroused in view of the dangers impending from the 
developments of the Papal conspiracy against these United 
States, these same responses of foreign universities were 
referred to as evincing that there was no ground for dis' 
trust and alarm by those who, for various reasons, were 
disposed to look on the best side of Romanism. The 
reply of the University of Douay, which is before them, 
will enable my readers to judge of the tenor of all the 
others ; and certainly its denial of the doctrines imputed 
is sufficiently explicit. If it were safe to regard such 
statements at all as having authority, it would probably 
increase the force of this particular document that we 
have in it the statement of the faculty of the canon and 
civil law, which was not the case in the other univer- 
sities. 

Mr. Brownson, too, on this side of the Atlantic, has un-^ 
dertaken to speak in the name of his church, and to de- 
nounce in no measured terms all who, with Professor Park, 



PAPAL PROFESSIONS IN GREAT BRITAIN AND AMERICA. 41 



have dared to impute to her the maxim that no faith is to 
be kept with heretics. Hear his indignant disclaimer : — 

'"No faith to be kept with heretics.' Where did the 
professor learn that this is a maxim of Catholicity ? It 
is false. Catholicity knows no such maxim ; and Catholic 
history authorizes no inference that she practically adopts 
or in the least conceivable manner countenances it. In- 
dividuals of bad faith may be found, no doubt, even among 
Catholics ; but that Catholicity or Catholic doctors any 
where countenance any thing of the sort, is a malignant 
falsehood. We are taught and required to keep our faith 
with all men ; and faith plighted to a heretic can no more 
be broken without sin than faith plighted to a true be- 
liever. We would that Protestants would observe a tithe 
of the good faith towards Catholics that Catholics do to- 
wards Protestants ; and, when they shall do so, we give 
them leave to abuse our morals to their full satisfaction." 

Bishop Kenrick, of Philadelphia, has also given assur- 
ances of a similar import. He was induced to do it in 
order to produce the belief that no danger is to be appre- 
hended to the political institutions of this country from 
the extensive spread of the Romish system. Romanists, 
he assures us, whether ecclesiastics or laymen, are as good 
citizens as any Protestants whatever, and do not hold the 
odious dogmas as to the violation of faith to heretics that 
are imputed to them. See his treatise on the Primacy, 
pp. 469-471. 

4* 



CHAPTER lY. 



WHAT OUGHT WE TO BELIEVE? 

Why ought we not to believe such statements ? Can 
we suppose that such men are mistaken, or that they will 
wilfully falsify ? 

Without answering the question as to wilful falsification, 
I reply, all such statements are of no force, because they 
produce no evidence from those whose prerogative it is to 
decide what is, and what is not, a part of the Romish faith. 
That there is such a body, they know as well as we. Why, 
then, instead of giving us their own assertions, do they 
not give us the words of that supreme authority? 

They know, as well as we, that no bishop, and no fac- 
ulty of any university, can settle a principle of the Romish 
faith. The fundamental principles of the system forbid 
it. They know, too, that all such statements are worth no 
more than so much waste paper. 

These universities, as well as Charles Butler, the histo- 
rian and leader of the Romish party in England, and the 
Romish laity, followed the principles of the Galilean or 
cisalpine divines, at the head of whom was Bossuet, who 
wrote under the influence of the great monarch of France. 
But' neither the Pope of Rome nor a general council ever 
sanctioned the views of these divines. Of what use, then, 
is it, in such a case, to appeal to the opinions of such au- 
thorities ? 

(42) 



WHAT OUGHT WE TO BELIEVE? 



43 



Nor is any more weight due to the American protesta- 
tions, especially to the statements of Mr. Brownson. We 
may well ask what is his authority, that he should under- 
take to settle a question like this.? He is not even an 
ecclesiastic ; he is a mere layman ; and he knows, as well as 
any one else, that on a point like this his assertions have no 
more weight than the light dust of the balance. 



WHAT IS THE SUPREME TRIBUNAL? 

What, then, is binding on all Romanists as an article of 
faith? What is the highest authority in such a case? 
Whose decision is final and supreme? I answer, that 
which is binding according to the views of all ; that which 
is the highest evidence is the decision of a general coun- 
cil, sanctioned by the pope, or a decision of the pope, 
ex cathedra, acquiesced in by the bishops. 

That this is the true view of the case, Mr. Brownson 
will not pretend to deny. He has distinctly affirmed it. 
The statement of Peter Dens is perfectly coincident. 

"To whom does the authority of judgment in contro- 
versies respecting the faith belong ? " 

" Ans. To the superiors of the church ; namely, to the 
bishops, and above all to the supreme pontiff." 

"Does this judgment in matters of faith, not appertain 
to theological doctors or other ecclesiastics ? " 

" Ans. No ; and hence, in general councils, they have 
not a decisive vote ; but they are admitted to them only 
for the examination of subjects and for consultation ; 
much less, therefore, are laymen judges in matters of 
faith." 

He also says of the bishops not assembled in council, 
that, if they coincide with a decision of a pope, it is of ^ 
equal authority as if they were in council ; for " the 



44 



THE PAEAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED. 



church dispersed is equally infallible as if assembled in 
general council, and is the same tribunal." 

Nor is it necessary that all the bishops should be unan- 
imous ; " but a moral uniformity of the bishops is sufficient, 
or the greater part of them agreeing with their head, the 
supreme pontiff." — Nos. 80, 81. 

We demand, therefore, not the protestation of Mr. 
Brownson, nor of the Universities of Paris, Louvain, Dou- 
ay, Alcala, and Salamanca, nor of the Romanist prelates, 
priests, and laity of Great Britain made after the reforma- 
tion had shown so clearly the horrors of the doctrines of the 
Roman corporation that they were compelled to renounce 
them to escape the detestation of outraged humanity, and 
made to gain political privileges of which the genuine 
doctrines of. that corporation rendered them unworthy ; 
we demand the decision of that corporation to whom 
alone, on Romish principles, it belongs to settle questions 
of truth and duty for the Romish world. And I am con- 
strained to ask, Why did not Mr^ Pitt propose directly his 
queries to the court of Rome, and request a bull, to be 
acquiesced in by all bishops, in which the pope should re- 
nounce all claims to civil authority out of his own terri- 
tories, and all power to depose monarchs and other rulers, 
and to release their subjects from their oath of allegiance, 
and in which especially he should condemn as heretical 
the maxim of so many of his predecessors, that no faith is 
to be kept with heretics ? Or why did he not request a 
general council, in which these things should be clearly 
defined and settled to the satisfaction of his Protestant 
majesty the King of Great Britain ? Did he infer from 
the previous systematic opposition of the popes to sanc- 
tioning those disclaimers on these points, which had been 
inserted by the British kings in the oaths of allegiance 
tendered to their Romanist subjects, and which opposition 



WHAT OUGHT WE TO BELIEVE? 



45 



even Charles Butler is obliged to conderan as wrong, that 
the pope was unwilling to commit himself on these points, 
lest he should renounce powers which it might be expe- 
dient still to retain for future use? ^ 

If so, was it not the extreme of sinjplicity in him to think 
that, by a mode so purely congregational, he could decide 
what are the doctrines of the Romish church? What 
right have laymen, and priests, and professors in univer- 
sities to decide what are the doctrines of. the Romish 
church ? Who authorized them ? Who gave them their 
authority ? So, too, Mr. Brownson's indignant disclaimer 
of Professor Park's implication, that the Romish church 
have taught the maxim, no faith is to be kept with heretics, 
— of what worth is it? He is neither the pope nor a 
general council, and his opinion is worth no more than 
that of any Protestant, and far less than that of Professor 
Park, as we shall soon see. From all private opinions, 
then, I shall appeal to the decisions of popes, acquiesced 
in by the bishops of the Catholic world, and of general 
councils, for direct and decisive evidence on the point in 
question. 

There is also another-kind of evidence to which I shall 
resort. It is the argument cumulative from facts, on 
the obvious principle that though one case of forgery, ly- 
ing, or perjury does not prove that the system tends to 
such results, yet the repetition of such facts, in great num- 
bers and on the great scale, does implicate the radical 
character of the system. The coming up of one poison- 
ous weed does not prove that a given soil has in it the 
seed of such weeds ; but if, year after year, such weeds 
spring up in all directions and in spite of all kinds of 
culture, it is proof that the seed of such weeds is in the 
soil. So if, for centuries, when the system of Romanism 
was most fully developed, forgeries, lying, and perjury 



46 



THE PAPAL- CONSPIRACY EXPOSED. 



became the order of tlie day, and if the chief advocates for 
the Papacy have introduced the most perfect system of 
perjury and lying by rule ever known on earth, then it 
must be conceded that the roots of lying and perjury lie 
deep in the soil of the system, and that the forementioned 
facts of history are their natural and genuine develop- 
ment. 



CHAPTER Y. 



POSITIONS TO BE PROVED. 

In conducting the examination, I shall consider mainly 
that period in history when the system W9.s left most to 
itself, when there were no Protestant nations to fear or 
to delude, and when it felt that the world was its own. 
Then, surely, would a divinely established and infallible 
corporation show its true character and develop its real 
principles. 

I refer to the period between the consummation of the 
Papal power by the forged decretals and the time of the 
council of Constance. During this time the following 
general councils were held : 1123, 1st Lateran ; 1139, 2d 
Lateran ; 1179, 3d Lateran ; 1215, 4th Lateran ; 1245, 1st 
of Lyons ; 1274, 2d of Lyons ; 1311, council of Vienna ; 
1409, council of Pisa, which the Italian party consider as 
not established among the general councils ; 1414, the 
council of Constance. 

The decrees of these councils are now before me in the i 
third volume of Binius, from which I shall make extracts. 
This is a part of the Roman Bible. It has, in fact, had far 
more authority in the Roman world than the word of God. 
As in the days of Christ, they have made void the law of 
God by their traditions. .Referring to this and to other 
sources of evidence, then, I affirm the following things : — 

1. That the Romish church has taught and sanctioned 

(47) 



48 



THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED. 



lying and perjury, by professing to dissolve political oaths 
and other obligations, and authorizing and commanding 
men to act as if they were dissolved. Thereby she has 
involved them in the guilt of lying and perjury before 
God and man, as all enlightened Christians at this time 
fully believe. 

2. The principle that no faith is to be kept with a her- 
etic was formally established by the church as an article 
of faith, and all were solemnly anathematized who should 
dare to call it in question. 

3. The real nature of the dispensing power exercised 
by the popes was in history illustrated in such a variety 
of cases that there can be no possibility of misunderstand- 
ing it. It has been used to dissolve, 1. A most solemn, 
covenant sanctioned by oath between the pope and a Cath- 
olic sovereign. 2. To dissolve most solemn covenants on 
oath between themselves and the body of cardinals. 3. To 
dissolve solemn covenants on oath between two Catholic 
sovereigns. 4. To dissolve a most solemn covenant on 
oath between a Catholic and a Mahometan sovereign. 
5. To dissolve the oaths of subjects to rulers, both Cath- 
olic and heretical. 6. To dissolve all obligation of all 
kinds and of all men towards heretics. 

4. The effects on human society and on the feelings of 
men, as to the obligations of truth and the sacredness of 
an oath in the Romish world, have been such as would 
naturally be produced by such doctrines. 

5. Even since the reformation, a code of morals has 
been promulgated, especially on the subject of lying and 
perjury, which is adapted to sap the very foundations of 
civil society and reduce the world to a state of perfect 
moral degradation and anarchy. And, what is worthy of 
special notice, it was promulgated by the most prominent 
defenders of the Papacy, the society of the Jesuits — con* 



POSITIONS TO BE PROVED. 



49 



cerning whom we are now taught by Mr. Brownson that 
they have been hated in all ages for righteousness' sake. 
They were so holy, he would have us believe, that this 
wicked world could not endure them ; and their suppres- 
sion and restoration he compares to the crucifixion and 
resurrectioD of Christ. 

6. In connection with these facts, we are to consider the 
forgeries which have disgraced the Romish corporation in 
all ages, the notorious frauds as it regards relics and mir- 
acles, and the cases in which prominent ecclesiastics have 
been detected in notorious falsehoods as a means of pro- 
moting their system, and then ask, Is such a coincidence 
of so many different systems of lying and perjury in con- 
nection wdth the same body, followed up by correspondent 
practice, an accident ? 

Does it not rather look like the carrying out of certain 
great original and fundamental principles of the system ? 
If, then, we find these principles formally laid down by 
supreme authority, and in numerous and various modes 
reduced to practice, can any evidence be conceived of 
more decisive ? 

7. In order to complete the statement of facts, we add, 
finally, that this system of perfidy and fraud has been 
linked in with, and ministered to, an extended and exe- 
crable system of persecution, with which the corporation 
of Rome has endeavored cruelly to exterminate all whom 
it has perfidiously disfranchised. 

5 



CHAPTER VI. 



TESTIMONY ADDUCED. 

I HAVE now arraigned the Romish corporation before 
the bar of God and of the community on a charge of no 
light moment, either to them as a body, or4o us as a na- 
tion, or to the human race. Let, then, every thinking mind 
closely scrutinize the sufficiency of my evidence. 



JOHN HUSS AND THE COUNCIL OF CONSTANCE. 

I shall begin with a clear development of the principles 
and practice of the Romish church, as defined by the coun- 
cil of Constance. This, as all know, was convened to ter- 
minate the great schism. Of it, Charles Butler, a distin- 
guished English Romanist, says, "It is eminent by the 
number and character of the persons present at its delib- 
erations, the regularity of its proceedings, and the wisdom 
and energy of its decrees. It was attended by thirty car- 
dinals, four patriarchs, twenty archbishops, three hundred 
bishops, and one thousand other ecclesiastics." 

Bonnechose says, " The composition of the council was 
worthy of the great interests that were to be discussed. 
There was not a kingdom, or state, or republic, or scarcely 
a city or community that was not represented at Con- 
stance. Two popes, John XXIII. and Martin *V., acted 

(50) 



TESTIMONY ADDUCED. 



51 



as presidents, one at the beginning, the other at the end." 
John Huss was summoned to appear before the council and 
answer to charges against him for heresy. Before going, 
he applied to the Emperor Sigismund for a safe conduct. 
It was given. The terms were as follows : — 

" We have received the honorable Mr. John Huss under 
our protection and defence." To all authorities he says, 
" Allow him without any impediment to go, to stop, to re- 
main, and TO RETUEN freely ; and, whenever it shall be ne- 
cessary, let it be your pleasure, as it is your duty, to make 
provision for his secure and safe conduct, for the honor 
and reverence of our majesty." 

Notwithstanding this, the council, by a deputation to the 
emperor, distinctly urged it upon him that he was under 
no obligation to keep his promise to a heretic. Dachery, 
an eye witness, in his German history of the council, con- 
firms this fact : he says, " The deputation, in a long speech, 
persuaded the emperor, that, hy decretal authority, he should 
not keep faith with a man accused of heresy." And in the 
canon law,-Decret. Greg., book v. tit. viii. cap. xvi., we 
find as follows : — 

Those who were bound by any obligations to heretics 
are freed from all obligation." "Let those who were 
bound to those who have manifestly fallen into heresy hy 
any compact, NO matter with what degree of strength it 
MAY have been CONFIRMED, know that they are absolved 
from all obligations of fidelity, authority, and obedience 
of any kind." 

In the third Lateran council, twenty-seventh canon, a 
similar injunction exists as it regards those who coun- 
tenance certain heretics whom the council had excommu- 
nicated. 

" Let those who are bound to them by any compact or 
covenant know that they are released from all obligation 
of fidelity, homage, and every kind of obedience whilst 
they remain in so great iniquity." 



52 



THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED. 



This, it seems, they urged on the emperor, as applicable 
to him if he protected Huss. The council also threatened 
Sigismund, as he expressly affirms, that they would break 
up the sessions and disperse, and thus defeat. his great end, 
— that is, the healing the schism, — if he persisted in his 
purpose to defend Huss according to his safe conduct. In 
these and other ways they prevailed. Sigismund was 
taught by them that no faith was to be kept with a heretic, 
and urged against his better feelings, till he consented to 
do the will of the council. Huss refused ,to' perjure him- 
self by abjuring errors which he did not hold ; nor would 
he renounce what the council called errors till convinced 
by them from the Bible that they were so. Hence they 
condemned him to the stake ; degraded him to the con- 
dition of a layman ; delivered him to the emperor; he deliv- 
ered him to the chief magistrate of Constance, and he to 
the executioners. 

Let us survey the closing scene. I give it in the words 
of Emile de Bonnechose, in his Keformers before the Ref- 
ormation, pp. 103, 104, New York edition : — 

They placed on his head a sort of crown, or pyramidal 
mitre, on which were painted frightful figures of demons, 
with this inscription : ' The Arch-Heretic ; ' and, when he 
was thus arrayed, the prelates devoted his soul to the 
devils. John Huss, however, recommended his spirit to 
God, and said aloud, 'I wear with joy this crown of op- 
probrium, for the love of Him who bore a crown of 
thorns.' 

" The church then gave up all claim to him ; declared 
him a layman ; and, as such, delivered him over to the 
secular power, to conduct him to the place of punishment. 
John Huss, hy the order of Sigismund, was given up hy the 
Elector Palatine, vicar of the empire, to the chief magistrate 
of Constance, who, in his turn, abandoned him to the officers 
of justice. He walked between four town Serjeants to the 
place of execution. The princes followed, with an escort 



TESTIMONY ADDUCED, 



53 



of eio'ht hundred men, stron,Q:ly armed ; and the concourse 
of the people was so prodigious that a bridge was very 
near breaking down under the multitude. In passing by 
the episcopal palace, Huss beheld a great fire consuming 
his books ; and he smiled at the sight. 

" The place of punishment was a meadow adjoining the 
gardens of the city, outside the gate of Gotleben. On ar- 
riving there, Huss kneeled down and recited some of the 
Penitential Psalms. Several of the people, hearing him 
pray with fervor, said aloud, ' We are ignorant of this 
man's crime ; but he offers up to God most excellent 
prayers.' 

" V>^hen he was in front of the pile of wood which was 
to consume his body he was recommended to confess his 
sins. Huss consented, and a priest was brought to him, a 
man of great learning and high reputation. The priest 
refused to hear him unless he avowed his errors and re- 
tracted. ' A heretic,' he observed, ' can neither give nor 
receive the sacraments.' Huss replied, ' I do not feel my- 
self to be guilty of any mortal sin ; and, now that I am on 
tlie point of appearing before God, I will not purchase 
absolution by a perjury.' 

" When he wished to address the crowd in German, the 
Elector Palatine opposed it, and ordered him to be forth- 
with burned. 'Lord Jesus/ cried John Huss, 'I shall 
endeavor to endure with humility this frightful death, 
which I am awarded for thy holy gospel. Pardon all my 
enemies.' Whilst he was praying thus, with 2ns eyes raised 
up to heaven, the paper crown fell off : he smiled ; but the 
soldiers replaced it on his head, in order, as they declared, 
that he might be burned with the devils whom he had 
obeyed. 

" Having obtained permission to speak to his keepers, 
he thanked them for the good treatment he had received 
at their hands. ' My brethren,' said he, ' learn that I firm- 
ly believe in my Savior : it is in his name that I suffer ; and 
this very day shall I go and reign with him.' ^ 

" His body was then bound with thongs, with which he 
was firmly tied to a stake driven deep into the ground. 
When he was so affixed some persons objected to his 
face being turned to the east, saying that this ought not to 



54 



THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED. 



be, since he was a heretic. He was then untied and bound 
again to the stake with his face to the west. His head 
w^as held close to the wood by a chain smeared with soot, 
and the view of which inspired him with pious reflections 
on the ignominy of our Savior's sufferings. 

" Fagots were then arranged about and under his feet, 
and around him was piled up a quantity of wood and straw. 
When all these preparations were completed, the Elector 
Palatine, accompanied by Count d'Oppenheim, marshal of 
the empire, came up to him, and for the last time recom- 
mended him to retract. But he, looking up to heaven, 
said with a loud voice, ' I call God to witness, that I have 
never either taught or written what those false witnesses 
have laid to my charge. My sermons, my books, my writ- 
ings have all been done with the sole view of rescuing 
souls from the tyranny of sin ; and therefore most joy- 
fully will I confirm with my blood that truth which I have 
taught, written, and preached, and which is confirmed by 
the divine law and the holy fathers.' 

" The elector and the marshal then withdrew, and fire 
was set to the pile. ' Jesus, Son of the living God,' cried 
John Huss, 'have pity on me!' He prayed and sung a 
hymn in the midst of his torments ; but soon after, the wind 
having risen, his voice was drowned by the roaring of the 
flames. He was perceived for some time longer moving 
his head and lips, and as if still praying ; and then he 
gave up the spirit. His habits were burned with him ; and 
the executioners tore in pieces the remains of his body and 
threw them back into the funeral pile until the fire had 
absolutely consumed every thing. The ashes were then 
collected together and thrown into the Rhine." 

Of these proceedings the council of Constance are the 
real authors. So they regarded the case, and felt them- 
selves called on to defend both themselves and Sigismund. 
To eJGfect this they passed two decrees — one relating to 
the impropriety of allowing a safe conduct to arrest trial 
and punishment for heresy ; the other to defend Sigismund 
for his treachery to John Huss, in authorizing his punish- 



TE3TIM0XT ADDUCED. 



55 



ment and giving him up to the magistrates of Constance 
to be burned. In this second decree they not only state 
the doctrine that no faith is to be kept with heretics, but 
solemnly anathematize all who shall dare to call in ques- 
tion the proceedings of the council or of Sigismund. 

Concerning this Gieseler says, To justify the emperor 
for the infringement of his safe conduct, the council passed 
the shameful decree, that no faith need be held with a 
heretic.'' The following is a literal translation of these 
decrees : — 

" This holy synod declares that no prejudice to the Cath- * 
olic faith can or ought to be produced, and no impediment 
to ecclesiastical jurisdiction interposed, by any safe con- 
duct given by the emperor, kings, and other secular pow- 
ers to heretics or those charged with heresy, supposing 
that they shall thus recall them from their errors, what- 
ever be the obligation with which they have bound them- 
selves. But, notwithstanding the said safe conduct, it shall 
be lawful for a competent ecclesiastical judge to inquire 
into the errors of such persons, and to proceed against 
such errors in other ways, according to their deserts, and 
to punish thera as much as justice demands if they shall ob- 
stinately refuse to recant their errors, although they came 
to the place of trial relying on the safe conduct, and other- 
wise would not have come." 

The second decree is this : — 

"Whereas some ill-informed or ill-disposed persons, 
or some accustomed, perhaps, to think themselves wiser 
than they ought, not only assail his royal majesty with 
slanderous tongues, but even, as it is said, this holy 
council, saying or insinuating, publicly or privately, that 
the safe conduct given by that most unconquerable prince 
Lord Sigismund, King of the Romans and of Hungary, 
to John Huss, that heresiarch of damnable memory, was 
violated when it ought not to have been, contrary to 
justice or honor ; when still the said John Huss, obsti* 



56 



THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED. 



nately assailing tlie orthodox faith, had rendered him- 
self undeserving of any safe conduct and privilege ; nor 
ought any faith or 'promise to he observed to him, to the injury 
of the Catholic faith, by any law, natural, divine, or human. 
Therefore the said holy synod, by the terms of this decree, 
declares that the aforesaid most unconquerable prince did 
what was suitable according to the claims of justice, and 
what was becoming his royal majesty, concerning the afore- 
said John Huss, notwithstanding the aforesaid safe con- 
duct — ordaining and enjoining on all faithful Christians, 
in general and in particular, that no one hereafter shall 
reproach this sacred council or his royal majesty with 
their conduct towards the aforesaid John Huss, or in any 
way speak to their discredit. But whoever shall do 
otherwise, let him be punished without mercy, as a sup- 
porter of heresy and guilty of treason." 

Notwithstanding, therefore, the accumulated protesta- 
tion of the foreign universities to Mr. Pitt and the in- 
dignation of Mr. Brownson, this infallible council has 
taught the doctrine, in theory and practice, that no faith 
is to be kept with heretics ; and not only so, but they have 
taught it as an article of faith, and declared him worthy 
of punishment without mercy, as a heretic, if he denies it. 

And why should not the council take this ground ? 
Had it not been the avowed principle of the most influ- 
ential pontiffs during that "glorious period," the middle 
ages ?* Had not other councils, in effect, decreed the same 
thing ? I shall soon show that they had. If, then, these 
things are so, there is presented to Mr. B., and to all other 
Romanists, this dilemma — either to adopt the maxim, or 
to reject the authority of that church which has thus, by 
sanctioning perjury in its basest form, alike invaded the 
most sacred rights and outraged the most holy moral 
convictions of God and man. 

Nothing can be more decisive than this testimony ; yet 
I will, for the sake of rendering assurance doubly sure, 



TESTIMONY ADDUCED. 



57 



proceed to adduce more " facts, names, and dates on the 
points involved. My additional witnesses will be Urban 
YI., Innocent VIII., Innocent III., and the fourth Lateran 
council. 

POPE URBAN VI. VERSUS 0. A. BROWNSON. 

It would almost seem to have been the object of Urban 
YI. to contradict Mr. Brownson's assertion in the strongest 
possible terms. He lays down explicitly, and in the most 
general terms possible, that no promises, covenants, leagues, 
or engagements of any kind with heretics are to be re- 
garded as of any binding force. 

But who was Urban YI. ? He sat in the pontifical 
chair from the year 1378 to the year 1389. He was a 
Neapolitan, known by the name of Bartholomew Pregnano 
before he ascended the Papal throne. He is found in 
the list of Bishop Kenrick as the one hundred and ninety- 
eighth pope. In that of M. Daunou he is the two hundred 
and fifth. Both coincide in regarding him as one of the 
genuine successors of Peter, through whom all manner of 
truth and grace has come down even to the present 
generation. ' 

On the fourth year of his pontificate, on the third day 
of the calends of April, and from the palace of St. Peter 
at Eome, he issued a decree of great moment. To this I 
invite the special attention of Mr. Brownson, and of all 
who desire to judge of Mr. Brownson's orthodoxy as a 
genuine Eomanist. It is a matter of no small moment for 
Mr. Brownson to look to it ; for, unless Pope Urban is mis- 
taken, Mr. Brownson is at this time lying beneath the 
indignation of Almighty God, and of the blessed Paul 
and Peter, his apostles, for having dared to infringe and 
contravene the decree of his sovereign lord the pope. 



58 



THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED. 



As it is thus a rnatter intimately connected with the 
salvation of his soul, that Mr. Brownson may have all the 
means necessary for ascertaining his deplorable condition, 
I would refer him to the decree in question, in order that 
he may give it a careful examination. He will find it on 
page 352 of the seventh volume of Rymer's Foedera, begin- 
ning thus : Urbanus Episcopus, servus servorum Dei, ad 
futuram rei memoriara ; " i. e., " Bishop Urban, the servant 
of the servants of God, in order to keep the thing in 
everlasting remembrance, issues this decree." Mr. Brown- 
son can find a copy of this work in the law library of 
Harvard College, and another in the college library of the 
same institution. From the first I copy the substance of 
the decree. 

From the first and second sections of the decree it ap- 
pears that, to use the words of Urban, " Winceslaus, King 
of the Romans and of Bohemia, and the most illustrious 
Charles, Emperor of the Romans, had, either simultaneously 
or in succession, entered into and made certain confedera- 
tions, or contracts, or leagues, and agreements with divers 
kings, princes, dukes, counts, chief men, nobles, and certain 
others, and that some of these kings, princes, dukes, counts, 
&c., either then were, or afterwards became, manifest schis- 
matics, or heretics, and separated from the unity of the 
holy Roman and universal church ; " therefore, in view of 
these things, Bishop Urban, was tilled with deep anxiety 
lest true Romanists should be shaken from the faith by in- 
tercourse with such heretics, and felt himself called on to 
issue this decree, " for the everlasting memory of the thing." 

The great question to be settled, of course, was, in what 
manner ought such confederations, or contracts, or leagues, 
and agreements with heretics to be regarded and treated, 
Are they binding, and to be observed in good faith ? or are 
they null and void ? 



TESTIMONY ADDUCED. 



5^ 



In these circumstances, and witli reference to this ques- 
tion, Pope Urban issued his decree, and closed it with the 
solemn assurance that the wrath of Almighty God, and of 
the blessed apostles Peter and Paul, would rest on those 
who with impious temerity should dare to resist or infringe 
it. Now, that this is the very thing that Mr. Brownson 
has done, I propose next to show. Let us, then, attend to 
the solemn decision of the pope upon a point so grave. 
He first proceeds in the most explicit and solemn manner 
to state the general principles on which his decision was 
to be based, and then to apply them to the case in question. 
Notice his words : -~ 

" We therefore, in view of the fact that confederations, or 
contracts, or leagues, and agreements made with heretics of 
this kind, or with schismatics, after they have become such, 
are unreasonable, unlawful, and of right to be regarded as 
not existing, (even although they may have been made be- 
fore they fell into schism or heresy ;) and although they 
may have been confirmed by an oath, or a solemn pledge 
of fidelity, or by an apostolic confirmation, or strength- 

ENEH BY ANY OTHER CONFIRMATION," &C. So much for 

the statement of principles. And surely it is sufficiently 
explicit to satisfy even the most confirmed sceptic. 

Now for the practical application. On such grounds 
the pontiff proceeds solemnly to declare, that " the king 
and others who together with him may have entered into 
or made such coufederations, or contracts, or leagues, and 
agreements, and to whom such confederations, or contracts, 
or leagues, and agreements can be extended, or who have 
or can have any interest in them, are absolved from them, 
and OUGHT not to observe them." 



Nor is this all. In the third section the pontiff enjoins 



60 



THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED, 



it upon the king to assail such heretics with his whole 
power, on the ground that all communion with them is 
dangerous to the soul. 

In the fourth section he declares that he is animated by 
a motive similar to that which Mr. Brownson avows as 
the mainspring of his zeal — i. e., an earnest desire of 
saving the soul of the king and of others from ruin by 
heresy. 

In order, therefore, to effect so laudable a purpose, he 
proceeds in the fifth section, in due form, to absolve the 
king and all others from all obligation of any sort to keep 
faith with heretics. Listen to his words : " We therefore, 
by the tenor of these letters and by apostolic authority, 
declare that the aforesaid king, and all others who are or 
can be concerned, have been and are wholly absolved from 
the observance of such confederations, or contracts, or 
leagues, and agreements, and are not bound to observe 
them in the least degree. Moreover, so far as, de facto, 
they have proceeded in them, we invalidate them, render 
them void, and declare them to be destitute of all binding 
power." 

Nor is this enough. As if to make assurance doubly 
sure, in the great work of saving souls, he proceeds in the 
sixth section absolutely to forbid the observance of sucb 
leagues and agreements. " Moreover, to avert dangers from 
the soul of the king and all others concerned, we utterly forbid 
them at all to regard such confederations, contracts, leagues, 
and agreements, or to suffer them to he regarded by others" 

He then elevates his mind to the contemplation of future 
ages, and considers the probability that ignorant or wicked 
men, like Mr. Brownson, will assail the sublime principles 
thus promulgated, and binds them to desist by a solemn j 



TESTIMONY ADDUCED. 



61 



decree. Thus in the seventh section he proceeds : " We 
decree that from this time, whatever shall be attempted in 
opposition to us, by whomsoever undertaken, or by what- 
ever authority, and whether ignorantly or intelligently, 
shall be utterly devoid of authority and force." 

Then in the eighth, section follows his final warning to 
all ages against so great a crime, and a denunciation of 
his highest anathemas against its authors. " Let no man 
dare to infringe this declaration or with foolhardy au- 
dacity rush against it. But if any one shall presume to 
attempt this deed, let him know that he will surely incur 
the indignation of Almighty God and of his blessed 
apostles Peter and Paul." 

" Sub fills sericis Flavi, Rubique coloris, De Curia T. 
Frabi." 

The margin of Rymer informs us that the document in 
question was copied from the original autographs. Who, 
now, can read this decree and not be struck with the im- 
minent peril in which the soul of Mr. Brownson is placed ? 
For he has not only dared in general to oppose the prin- 
ciples of this decree, but utterly to denounce them as im- 
pious and profane. Professor Park had ascribed to the 
Roman Catholic church the advocacy of the very princi- 
ples so clearly set forth by Pope Urban ; and Mr. Brown- 
son, instead of recognizing them and standing up like a 
man in defence of his sovereign lord the pope, Peter-like 
denies him and Judas-like betrays him. Listen to his 
daring words : — 

" ' No faith to be kept with heretics.' Where did the 
professor learn that this is a maxim of Catholicity ? It 
is false. Catholicity knows no such maxim, and Catho- 
lic history authorizes no inference that she practically 
adopts or in the least conceivable manner countenances 
it. Individuals of bad faith may be found, no doubt, even 
among Catholics ; but that Catholicity or Catholic doc- 
6 



G2 THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED. 

tors any where countenance any thing of the sort is a 
malignant falsehood. We are taught and required to 
keep our faith with all men ; and faith plighted to a here- 
tic can no more be broken without sin than faith plighted 
to a true believer. We would that Protestants would 
observe a tithe of the good faith towards 'Catholics that 
Catholics do towards Protestants ; and, when they shall 
do so, we give them free leave to abuse our morals to 
their full satisfaction." 

Here Mr. Brownson boldly declares that the maxim, 
" that no faith is to be kept with heretics," is not a maxim 
of Catholicity, and manifests an utter detestation of it. 
Pope Urban declares that it is. Mr. Brownson declares 
that Catholic history authorizes no inference that she 
practically adopts or in the least conceivable manner coun- 
tenances it." Pope Urban declares that the wrath of 
Almighty God and the blessed apostles Peter and Paul 
shall rest upon all who dare to assail so fundamental a 
doctrine. Mr. Brownson plainly declares that keeping 
faith with heretics is a duty, and intimates that it is essen- 
tial to the salvation of the soul. Pope Urban declares 
that it is a crime, and enjoins the duty of violating faith 
with heretics as essential to save the soul. Thus we see 
that there is a direct and fatal collision between Pope 
Urban YI. and Orestes A. Brownson, and that, if Pope Ur- 
ban is right, the wrath of God is resting on Mr. Brownson. 

Let no one say that there was no general council assem- 
bled to confirin this decision of Pope Urban. It was given 
ex cathedra, and was acquiesced in by all the bishops with- 
out any known dissent. It is, therefore, a solemn decision 
of the church ; and it is sustained by councils in abun- 
dance. 

And now let Mr. Brownson recall his public declara- 
tions of his entire submission to the authority of the pope. 
He has openly declared that for him it is liberty enough 



TESTIMONY ADDUCED. 



63 



to think as the pope thinks. And, in view of all the facts 
in the premises, let him, if he dares, candidly answer the 
following questions : — 

1. Does he believe that Pope Urban spoke the truth of 
God, or that he promulgated the doctrines of devils ? 

2. If he spoke the truth of God, then is not Mr. Brown- 
Bon under the wrath of Almighty God and of the blessed 
apostles Peter and Paul for his impious statements above 
quoted? And, as he is very anxious to save his soul, 
ought he not at once and publicly to recant them ? 

3. If Pope Urban spoke the doctrines of devils, then is 
not his whole decree a specimen of the highest impiety 
and blasphemy ever uttered in the name of God ? 

4. Of what use is a head of the church when it is 
necessary to reject his blasphemies to save the soul ? 

5. By what rule can it be decided whether a pope 
speaks the truth of God or utters the blasphemies of the 
devil ? 

If Mr. Brownson will devote his energies to a careful 
investigation of these questions, and will give them an 
honest answer, then for his reward I will continue to pro- 
pose similar questions till he shall have had a full oppor- 
tunity to illustrate to the whole American people one of 
the most important and practical questions of tliB age. 



POPE INNOCENT YIII. AND THE WALDENSES. 

We have seen, in the case of John Huss, and of Winces- 
laus, and Charles, that the principle, "no faith is to be 
kept with heretics," was not a mere theoretical principle. 
It had a dread practical power. Nor are these solitary 
instances of its terrific operation. 

The fate of the Waldenses is too familiar to need an 



64 



THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED. 



elaborate historical narration. I will simply present the 
principles on which the head of the church dealt with 
that people, whose only crime was disobedience to the 
see of Rome. 

Pope Innocent YIII., in preparing to consign to death, 
not one martyr, but a whole body of Christians, thus com- 
missions Albert de Capitaneis, Archdeacon of the church 
of Cremona, as nuncio and commissioner of the apostolic ^ 
see, to labor, in concert with the inquisitor general, in the 
extermination of the Waldenses. JThe pope subjects to 
his authority for this end all archbishops, bishops, their 
vicars and chief officers. If ever a pope was called on to 
act on the real principles of the church, it was in such a 
case. For what end, then, are all these church powers 
subjected to the legate of the pope ? Hear him : — 

" In order that they may be obliged with you and the 
said inquisitor to take up arms against the said Walden- 
ses and other heretics, and to come to an understanding 
to crush them like venomous asps, and to contribute all 
in their care to so holy and so necessary an extermi- 
nation." 

After this, can any one expect that any faith will be 
kept with men all of whose rights are thus exterminated 
at one blow ? The head of the Romish corporation then 
proceeds to overturn all foundations of morality by ex- 
cusing and sanctioning the sins of those who will labor 
to exterminate the Waldenses, and declaring in express 
terms that none are under any obligation to keep faith 
with heretics. 

" We give you power to have the crusade preached up 
by fit men ; to grant that such persons as shall enter on 
the crusade and fight against these same heretics, and 
shall contribute to it, may gain plenary indulgence and 
remission of all their sins once in their life, and also at 



TESTIMONY ADDUCED. 



65 



their death ; to command, in virtue of their holy obe- 
dience, and under penalty of excommunication, all preach- 
ers of God's word to animate and incite the same believers 
to exterminate the pestilence, without sparing, by force 
and by arms. We further give you power to absolve 
those who enter on the crusade, fight, or Contribute to it, 
from all sentences, censures, and ecclesiastical penalties, 
general or particular, by which they may be bound, as 
also to give them dispensation for any irregularity con- 
tracted in divine matters, or for any apostasy, and to 
enter into some terms of composition with them for the 
goods which they may have secretly amassed, badly acquired, 
or held doubtfully, applying them to the expenses attend- 
ant on this extirpation of heretics ; * * * to concede 
to each permission to lawfully seize on the property, real or 
personal, of heretics ; also to command all being in the 
service of these same heretics, in whatsoever place they 
may be, to withdraw from it under whatever penalty you 
may ^deem fit ; and by the same authority to declare that 
they and all others who may be held and obliged by contract 
or other manner to pay them any thing are not for the 
future in any way obliged to do so ; and to deprive all 
those refusing to obey your admonitions and commands, of 
whatever dignity, state, order, and preeminence they may 
possess, — to wit, the ecclesiastics of their dignities, offices, 
and benefices, and the laity of i\iQ\v honors, titles, fiefs, and 
privileges, — if they persist in their rebellion ; * * * 
and to fulminate all kinds of censures, according as the 
case in your judgment may demand ; * * * to absolve 
and reestablish such as may wish to return to the lap of 
the church, although they may have sworn to favor the 
heretics, provided, taking the contrary oath, they promise 
to abstain most carefully from doing so. * * * You, 
therefore, beloved son, receiving with a devout spirit the 
charge of so praiseworthy an affair, must show yourself 
diligent and careful of word and deed in its execution. 
Act so that by your acts, accompanied by the divine grace, 
all may succeed in conformity with our expectation, and 
that by your solicitude you may merit, not only the glory 
which falls to the lot of those engaged in works of piety, 
but that you also may be in far /greater favor with us and 
0^ 



66 



THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED. 



the apostolic see on account of your very exact diligence 
and faithful integrity. 

" Given at Rome, at St. Peter's, the year of the in- 
carnation of our Lord 1487, fifth of the calends of May, 
and the thirteenth year of our pontificate." 

Let it be noticed here that we are not now considering 
an individual of bad faith here and there among the 
Catholics, such as Mr. Brownson admits may be found, 
but the head of the church, laying down principles on 
which all Romanists were to act. He authorizes his 
legate to declare that it is lawful to seize bn the property, 
real or personal, of the heretics, and to declare that all 
who may be held and obliged by contract or other manner 
to pay them any thing are not for the future in any way 
obliged to do so ; to absolve those who have sworn to favor 
the heretics, provided, taking the contrary oath, they prom- 
ise to abstain most carefully from doing so. Here robbery, 
cheating, and perjury towards heretics in their grossest 
forms are authorized by the head of the Romish corpora- 
tion ; and in his bull the whole corporation and church 
acquiesced : no dissent, no protest, was heard. Nay, more : 
they carried out these principles, to their utmost extent, 
without mitigation and without mercy. It is, therefore, 
the voice of the Romish church and her act. And yet, in 
view of such facts, Mr. Brownson has the audacity to say, 
"'No faith to be kept with heretics.^ Where did the 
professor learn that this is a maxim of Catholicity ? It 
is false. Catholicity knows no such maxim, and Catholic 
history authorizes no inference that she practically adopts 
or in the least conceivable manner countenances it.'^ 

Is it to be supposed that Mr. Brownson was ignorant of 
these facts? Or was he acting on the principle, that a lie 
for ecclesiastical utility is both defensible and meritorious? 
If the latter, he is a proficient in this kind of morality. 



TESTIMONY ADDUCED. 



67 



POPE IN^y^OCENT III. AND A GENERAL COUNCIL. 

But let US go back a little farther, and we come to 
another of the Innocents, who seem to have delighted to 
exhibit the highest possible contrast between their name 
and their deeds. We come to Innocent III. Let us listen 
to him, for in his days the Papal corporation ,was at the 
summit of its power ; and if it had any ideas of fidelity or 
mercy towards those weak and defenceless Christians 
whom they stigmatized as heretics, then it ought to have 
developed itself. Hear him, then: " Whoever are bound 
to those who have manifestly fallen into heresy by any 
compact, confirmed by any degree of strength whatever, 
let them know that they are absolved from all duty of 
fidelity, homage, and all kinds of obedience to them." 

These are the words of Innocent ; and from his decree 
the principle passed into the canon law, from which I have 
already quoted it, and where it still stands ; so that it 
has not only the authority of Innocent, but of all the 
popes who have sanctioned the canon law. 

Nor is this all : the fourth council of the Lateran, 1215, 
representing the whole of Christendom, has sanctioned 
the same principle. Of this council Innocent III. was the 
lord and life ; they did but register his decisions. Yet 
the decisions of a pope, acquiesced in by a general coun- 
cil, are those of the church ; and the decisions of this coun- 
cil as to heretics have also been transferred to the canon 
law, as any one may see who will compare cap. iii. De 
Hereticis of the council with Decret. Greg., lib. v. tit. vii. 
capit. xiii.-xv. 

They in the first place anathematize all heretics simply 
on the ground of heresy ; and in the whole chapter they 
say nothing of any other oifence. No sin against morals 



68 THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED. ' 

or good order is referred to ; the only sin is heresy. 
Hear them : " We excommunicate and anathematize all 
heresy that shall lift itself up against this sacred ortho- 
dox Catholic faith which we have already set forth. We 
condemn all heresies by whatever names they may be 
called, fades quidem hahentes. diver sas, sed caudas ad in- 
vicem colligatas, quia de vanitate communicant in idipsumJ^ 
I give the elegant Latin of Innocent and the council in 
part, that all may judge of the translation. It means, 
" Having faces diverse, but tails tied together, because in 
their vain conceptions they hold to the same thing in 
essence — i. e., the condemned heretics in aspect are vari- 
ous, but agree in the belief of radical error." The coun- 
cil then proceeds to the annihilation of all their rights 
by consigning them to death, and then also to annihilate 
the rights of their defenders, or friends, by cutting every 
tie by which they are bound to human society unless they 
assail the heretics, and by laying them open to every 
possible aggression and insult, even if they are not cut off 
by a cruel and violent death. 

"Let all the secular powers be led, and if necessary 
forced by ecclesiastical censure, to take an oath in public 
for the defence of the faith, swearing to exert themselves 
to exterminate from the countries subject to their jurisdic- 
tion all the heretics designated by the church. Each 
person, when he has received any authority, whether spir- 
itual or temporal, shall be bound to take this oath. 
Should any temporal lord, when warned by the church, 
neglect to purge his country of the stain of heresy, let 
him be excommunicated by the archbishop and the pro- 
vincial bishops ; and, should he refuse to give satisfaction 
within the year, let advice be given of it to the sovereign 
pontiff, in order that he may free the said lord's vassals 
from their oath of fidelity and give his lands to Catholics, 
in order that they may possess them without any contra- 
diction and maintain them in the purity of the faith, after 



TESTIMONY ADDUCED. 



69 



having exterminated the heretics. Catholics who shall 
take the cross to exterminate heretics shall enjoy the same 
indulgences and the same holy privilege as they who 
fight the infidels. He who listens to mibelievers, receives, 
defends, and aids them, is excommunicated like them, and, 
after a year has revolved, becomes infamous ipso jure. He 
cannot from that moment be called to public employments 
or councils ; he cannot vote for the election of inquisitors 
or councillors ; he cannot even be admitted as a witness ; 
he loses all faculty of acting as witness to a will, or of 
accepting an inheritance or legacy. No person shall be 
bound to appear before a court of law at his suit for any 
affair whatever ; but he shall be forced to appear at the 
demand of every one. Should he be a judge, his sen- 
tences shall not have any force, and no suit can legally be 
brought before his tribunal ; if an advocate, he shall not 
be permitted to defend ; if a notary, the acts which he 
passes shall be of no value, and they shall be condemned 
with him who drew them. * * * All that shall not fly 
those whom the church shall have thus noted shall also be 
excommunicated : priests are not to administer to them 
the holy sacraments, or give them ecclesiastical burial, or 
receive their gifts and offerings, under pain of depo- 
sition." 

All this and more still stands in full force in the records 
of th^ fourth Lateran council and in the canon law of 
Eome. And yet Mr. Brownson has the assurance to tell 
us that it is no part of Romanism. 

Her more general maxim, that no oath contrary to ec- 
clesiastical utility is binding, I shall now proceed to con- 
sider. 

THE LA^Y OF ECCLESIASTICAL UTILITY. — INNOCENT IIL — 
ALEXANDER III. — THIRD LATERAN COUNCIL. 

We have considered some of the evidence furnished by 
popes, general councils, and the canon law, that Romanism 
did adopt and sanction, both in theory and practice, that 



70 THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED. 

no faith is to be kept with heretics.' We have seen, too, 
in the case of John Hiiss and the Waldenses, that mere 
doctrinal correctness and exemplary piety were no defence 
against the charge of heresy, if the authority of the pope 
and the Roman corporation were denied. This arrogant 
and usurping corporation has, in all ages, made obedience 
to themselves the chief j;est of orthodoxy. Give them 
supreme power to rule and tax the Christian world, and 
all is well, even though the clergy shall be a disgrace to 
the name of God and a scandal to the civilized world. 
This is the key to the unspeakable bitterness and cruelty 
with which that corporation has hunted down heretics 
from age to age. They have arrogated to themselves the 
place of God upon earth, and made disobedience to their 
authority equivalent to high treason against God, and 
have treated it as a crime so enormous as to forfeit every 
right, and justify every kind of violence and cruelty in 
its extermination. The fundamental element, therefore, 
in this system, is an exaggeration of the importance of the 
Romish corporation above all other interests in the uni- 
verse, be they those of God or man. God has never, even 
for the highest sins against himself, authorized a violation 
of faith ; no, not even to his bitterest enemies. But a re- 
bellion against the Pope and Bishops of Rome is a sin that 
cannot be forgiven ; and to him who is guilty of it, the 
most solemn oaths, vows, and covenants are no defence. 
Pope Urban tells us they must be regarded as not in ex- 
istence. Nothing must be allowed to shield the guilty 
rebel from the bloody vengeance of Rome. Such is the 
real philosophy of this maxim of that abandoned and 
profligate corporation. 

But the same cause that led to this specific principle 
would lead, of necessity, to a principle still more general ; 
i. e., that no oath contrary to ecclesiastical utility is of 



TESTIMONY ADDUCED. 



71 



auy force ; that is, all principles of truth and integrity i,n 
the universe are of less importance than the interests of 
the Komish corporation. Moreover, of what these inter- 
ests demand, that corporation is the only judge. That 
this maxim, also, has been adopted and practised on by 
that corporation, there is evidence ample and explicit. 

The principle is laid down in express terms in the canon 
law, Decret. Greg., lib. ii. tit. xxiv. cap. xxvii. : " Juramen- 
tum contra utilitatem ecclesiasticam prcestitwn non tenetJ' 
" An oath taken contrary to ecclesiastical utility is not 
binding." This is the general principle, as stated in the 
caption of the canon. In the body the principle is thus 
expressed : "J\^on jur amenta sed perjuria potius sunt dicenda, 
qtice contra utilitatem ecclesiasticam adtentantur " Oaths 
taken contrary to ecclesiastical utility are not to be re- 
garded as oaths, but perjuries." This part of the canon 
law is taken from the decisions of the notorious Innocent 
III., the same who first laid down in scientific form the 
detestable maxim, that no faith is to be kept with heretics. 
Still, however, he is not entitled to the infamy of origi- 
nating the maxim in its present form. This infamy prop- 
erly belongs to the third Lateran council, under Alexander 
III. It there occurs in this form : "JVbn enim dicenda sunt 
juramenta sed potius perjuria, qum contra utilitatem ecclesias- 
ticam, et sanctorum patrum veniunt instituaJ' " Those oaths 
which operate against ecclesiastical utility and the insti- 
tutions of the holy fathers are not to be called oaths, but 
rather perjuries." Here, then, there is a concurrence of a 
general council, the decrees of Innocent III., and the au- 
thority of all the popes who have sanctioned the canon 
law, in establishing this as a maxim of the Romish corpo- 
ration. And, inasmuch as they are the only judges of 
what ecclesiastical utility is, this principle gives them full 



72 



THE PAPAL COXSPIRACY EXPOSED. 



power to dissolve all oaths of every kind which they 
deem inconsistent with their own interests. 

A principle more thoroughly immoral and profligate 
than this cannot be conceived. But it was not one whit 
more immoral and profligate than the practice to which 
it gave rise. Hallam remarks, with no less truth than 
severity, that " this maxim gave the most unlimited priv- 
ilege to the popes of breaking all faith of treaties which 
thwarted their interest or passion — a privilege which 
they continually exercised." 

HISTORICAL ILLUSTRATIONS.— THOMAS A BECKET. 

Let us, then, for a commentary on this principle, turn to 
the page of history. During the pontificate of this same 
Alexander III., Henry II., of England, established, at the 
council of Clarendon, certain ordinances designed to de- 
fend the rights of the king and civil powers of England 
over the clergy, against the arrogant invasions of the Pa- 
pacy. Thomas a Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, sol- 
emnly accepted and signed these ; but the pope decided 
that they were against " ecclesiastical utility." Becket 
forthwith professed sorrow for his oath to the pope, and 
the pope absolved him from it. What the meaning of ec- 
clesiastical utility is in this case, in the opinion of Alex- 
ander III., the lord of the third Lateran council, is per- 
fectly plain. It is the right to exempt his bishops and 
clergy from the control of the civil government under 
which they live, in a manner which not an existing gov- 
ernment on earth will now allow. The ordinances of 
Henry II. were right. The oath of Thomas a Becket was 
not in opposition to the law of God, but in strict accord- 



TESTIMOXy ADDUCED. 



73 



ance with it ; for God commands ecclesiastics, as well as 
others, to be subject to the laws of their legitimate civil 
rulers. The pope, therefore, authorized and required of 
Becket perjury ; and the Archbishop of Canterbury did 
perjure himself out of a regard to ecclesiastical utility ; 
that is, the ambitious plans of the pope. 



POPE PASCAL II. 

But in doing this he followed illustrious precedents. 
Pope Pascal II. carried on a long conflict with Henry Y. 
on the subject of investitures. At last Henry took him 
captive, and would not release him till he and sixteen car- 
dinals signed a treaty, by which he guarantied to the em- 
peror the right of investiture, provided he mingled no 
simony with it. He also crowned the emperor, and sol- 
emnly bound himself never to excommunicate him. The 
oath was taken in the most solemn form conceivable. The 
communion was celebrated at the time of the coronation. 
When the host was broken, the pope, taking a part, and 
giving a part to the emperor, said, " As this part of the 
living body is divided, so let him be divided from the 
kingdom of Christ and of God who shall attempt to vio- 
late this covenant." Nor was this all : the pope, after he 
had regained his liberty, renewed the same oath. (See Dau- 
nou, Court of Rome, p. 98.) Here, then, we have the head 
of the church bound by the most solemn oath that the 
mind of man can conceive. Moreover, all that the pope 
had promised was to give up usurped powers, to which he 
never had the slightest legal claim, and which had been 
secured only by falsehood and forgery. Without an oath 
it was his duty to renounce these usurped powers, much 
7 



74 



THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED. 



more with one so solemnly sanctioned over the body of 
Christ. 

But before " ecclesiastical utility " what can stand ? 
The most solemn oaths, touched by this magic wand, be- 
come a rope of sand. The oath of Pascal brought upon 
him the bitter censures of the Roman clergy. Hear, now, 
the narrative of the sequel, from the powerful and justly 
sarcastic pen of a Roman Catholic : "Now, the head of 
the church suffers himself to be accused of double dealing. 
He retires to Terracina to weep over his sin. He suffers 
the cardinals to annul his decrees and promises. He is 
going (so he says) to abdicate the tiara. Happily this 
purpose is opposed ; and such is the docility of the pon- 
tiff, that he consents with resignation to retain the power, 
so that he may have the opportunity to make a better use 
of it. Finally, in a council, he revoked the treaty which 
he had the misfortune to subscribe. Nevertheless he re- 
fuses personally to excommunicate Henry Y., so great, even 
yet, were his scruples to violate an engagement. The 
cardinals, — they pronounced this anathema in the presence 
of Pascal." — Daunou, p. 99. 

The records of the council in Binius show that Pascal 
submitted all his proceedings to the council and that they 
absolved him from his oath. "We all," say they, "in 
this sacred council, assembled with our lord the pope, in 
accordance with the decision of the Holy Spirit, condemn 
it (i. e., the covenant) with canonical censure and by ec- 
clesiastical authority. We decide that it is null and void. 
We annihilate its binding force ; and, that it may be utter- 
ly destitute of authority and power, we utterly excommu- 
nicafe (!) it." 

^' When this result was read, the whole council cried 
out, Amen ! Amen ! So be it ! so be it ! " — Binius, vol. iii. 
part ii. p. 445. 



TESTIMONY ADDUCED. 



75 



What oath now can stand before such principles of per- 
jury ? If the highest ecclesiastic swears a solemn oath to 
his king, the pope can absolve him from it. If the pope 
swears a solemn oath to an emperor, he has only to call a 
council, and they absolve him from it. In blasphemous 
mockery of the Holy Ghost, they dissolve and excommu- 
nicate the oath by his divine authority. 



THE PROCESS SIMPLIFIED. — PAUL IV. AND OTHEHS. 

But at last it was discovered that this formality of a 
council was needless. The pope found out that he not 
only had the authority to absolve others from their oaths, 
but that he had also full authority to absolve himself from 
any oath whatever. This greatly simplified the whole 
business. Take an example from Edgar, "Variations, p. 
249 : " Paul lY., in 1555, absolved himself from an oath 
which he had taken in the conclave. His holiness had 
sworn to make only four cardinals, but violated his obli- 
gation. His supremacy declared that the pontiff could 
not be bound, or his authority limited, even by an oath. The 
contrary he characterizes ' as a manifest heresy.' " (Paolo, 
ii. xxvii.) Indeed, so common was it to violate solemn oaths 
taken in conclave among the cardinals before election, 
binding whoever was elected pope to comply with certain 
conditions, that it became the regular course of events. 
Indeed, I am not aware that any pope was ever guilty, in 
such circumstances, of the heresy of feeling himself bound 
by the most solemn oath that it is possible to take. 

Of course the principle of ecclesiastical utility was ex- 
tended to all other oaths that were deemed injurious to 
the interests of the Romish corporation. Edgar, p. 251, 
illustrates this use of the principle : " Clement, in 1526, 



76 



THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED. 



absolved Francis II., the French king, from a treaty which 
he had formed in Spain. The Emperor of Germany had 
taken his Christian majesty a prisoner in the battle of 
Pavia and carried him to Madrid. The conditions of his 
engagement, which were disadvantageous, Francis con- 
firmed by an oath. This engagement, however, the pon- 
tiff, by his apostolic power, soon dissolved, for the purpose 
of gaining the French king as an ally in a holy confed- 
eracy which his infallibility had organized against the 
German emperor." Before " ecclesiastical utility " the 
power of a solemn oath, not to a heretic, but to a Cath- 
olic king, melted away. 

Of course a Mahometan sultan could expect no better 
treatment. Ladislaus, King of Hungary, formed a treaty 
with the Sultan Amurath, and the king and sultan con- 
firmed it by mutual oaths on the Gospels and the Koran. 
Eugenius TV., by his legate Julian, declared it in the high- 
est degree criminal to observe an oath so much opposed to 
" ecclesiastical utility." " I absolve you," said the legate, 
*' from perjury, and sanctify your arms." " The sultan, it 
is said, displayed a copy of the violated treaty in the front 
of battle, implored the protection of the God of truth, and 
called aloud on the prophet Jesus to avenge the mockery 
of his religion and authority." (Edgar, p. 251.) The re- 
sult was the defeat and death of Ladislaus. When all liars 
are cast into the lake of fire, where will Eugenius, the 
teacher of perjury, be found ? 

Take another instance from Hallam, Middle Ages, p. 293, 
note. Piccininio, the famous condottiere of the fifteenth 
century, had promised not to attack Francis Sforza, at 
that time at war with the pope. Eugenius IV. (the same 
excellent person who had annulled the compadata with the 
Hussites, releasing those who had sworn to them, and who 
afterwards made the King of Hungary break his treaty 



TESTIMONY ADDUCED. 



77. 



with Amurath II.) absolves him from his promise, on the 

express ground that a treaty disadvantageous to the 
church ought not to be kept. 

Of course, if "ecclesiastical utility'' can dissolve oaths 
of popes, archbishops, and kings, it can dissolve all oaths 
of allegiance, not merely to heretical rulers, but to all 
who act against the ambition, pride, or passions of the 
pope. 

On this ground, Gregory YII., in the third Roman coun- 
cil, excommunicated Henry TV., and dissolved all oaths 
of allegiance between him and his subjects. His words 
are : " I absolve all Christians from the obligations of the 
oath which they have taken or shall take to him, and I 
forbid any one to obey him as king." The same thing was 
repeated in the seventh Roman council. Nor has the 
church of Rome ever condemned these proceedings. Nay, 
Paul y. canonized Gregory YII., and inserted an office in 
the Roman breviary praising his holiness " for freeing the 
Emperor Henry's subjects from the oath of fidelity." Thus 
the praise of the doctrine of perjury was solemnly intro- 
duced into the worship of the Romish church. Alexander, 
Clement, and Benedict sanctioned the transactions of 
Paul. 

The same doctrine was sanctioned by the coincident ac- 
tion of the first general council of Lyons, and the pope, 
the highest authority in the Romish church. Innocent 
lY., in the presence of the sacred council, pronounced 
sentence of deposition on Frederic II., and declared all 
his subjects absolved from their oaths of allegiance ; for- 
bade any to obey or aid him as emperor or king ; and de- 
clared that all who should be guilty of obeying or aiding 
him should, ipso facto, be excommunicated, and directed 
the electors to choose a successor. But there is not room 
to give in detail the particulars and the results of this 
7* 



78 



THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED. 



abominable transaction. Nor have I designed to detail 
all the cases in which the same principles were reduced to 
practice by the popes and councils from the time of Greg- 
ory VII. to Pius VII. Time would fail me to complete 
such an enumeration. It would present at least twenty 
cases of teaching perjury on the great scale, by professing 
to dissolve national oaths. But the facts are too noto- 
rious to need more than a general reference. 



THE FINAL ISSUE. 

What, then, will Mr. Brownson say ? Will he admit 
that the popes and general councils of the Romish church 
did, in the name of God, mislead the whole world for 
centuries on the most fundamental point of morals and 
religion ? or will he defend their doctrine ? One or the 
other he must do ; for the facts admit of no denial. 

Is the pope indeed the vicar of God ? Does he, accord- 
ing to the canon law, " fill the place, not of a mere man, 
but of the true God on earth " ? (" Non puri hominis sed 
veri Dei vicem gerit in terris ; " Decret. Greg., lib. i. tit. vii. 
cap. iii.) Then let Mr. Brownson listen to the voice of 
Gregory as he inveighs "against the insanity of those who 
with impious mouth prate that the authority of the sacred 
and apostolic see cannot absolve any one from his oath of 
fidelity." (" Contra illorum insaniam, qui, nefando ore, 
garriunt auctoritatem sanct^ et apostolicse sedis non po- 
tuisse quemquam a sacramento fidelitatis ejus absolvere.") 
Let him listen to the voice of Innocent X. as he declares 
that " the Roman pontiff can invalidate civil contracts, 
promises, or oaths made by Catholics to heretics, and that 
simply because they are heretics ; and " that to deny the 
proposition is heresy and an attack upon the pontifical 



TESTIMONY ADDUCED. 



Is 



iuthority in questions relating to the faith, deserying of 
the severest punishment." Let him listen to the voice of 
Gregory IX., the father of the five books of decretals, as 
he declares that " none should keep faith with the person 
who opposes God and the saints." Let him, in addition to 
this, faithfully study the canon Jaw of his own church and 
the decrees of her general councils, and then reconcile 
his own statements with a due regard to historical truth 
if he can. If he was so utterly ignorant of the history 
and principles of his own church as to write what he did 
in sincerity, then an intelligent public can judge how much 
confidence ought to be reposed in his other historical 
statements. If he did understand the history and princi- 
ples of his own church, then either he adopts the maxim, 
that no faith is to be kept with heretics, as an excuse for 
his assertions, or else he has dared to make them without 
even the shadow of an excuse. 



MORAL EFFECTS OF SUCH PRINCIPLES. 

The effects on the morals of the community of such 
principles and such examples as I have described were 
such as might have been expected. When seventeen of 
the heads of the church were perjurers, and popes and 
councils taught perjury on principle, the hope of producing 
in the common mind a sacred regard for truth would be 
just about as reasonable as to suppose that the example 
of the orgies of Venus would produce chastity, or the 
worship of Bacchus temperance. 

Of the eleventh century Guilelmus says, "Faith was not 
found on earth. All flesh had corrupted their way. Jus- 
tice, equity, virtue, sobriety, and the fear of God perished, 
and were succeeded by violence, fraud, circumvention, 



80 



THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED. 



stratagem^ In the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, ac- 
cording to Morlaix, "Piety and religion seemed to bid 
adieu to man ; and for these were substituted treachery^ 
frauds impurity, rapine, schism, quarrels, war, and assas- 
sination." St. Bernard speaks of perjury as one of the 
leading characteristics of the degenerate ecclesiastics of 
his day. In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries the 
same state of things is found. Petrarch laments the 
" general destruction in his day of all integrity, justice, hon- 
esty, and fear of God." Mariana says, " The most dreadful 
outrages, perfidy and treason, were better recompensed 
than the brightest virtue. The wickedness of the pon- 
tiff DESCENDED TO THE PEOPLE." And what else could 
we expect ? Fordun says, " Inferiors devoted themselves 
to malediction and perjury. Superiors studied to oppress 
their underlings in every possible manner." Antonius, in 
his oration before the council of Trent, says, speaking of 
the state of the community in the sixteenth century, 
" Usury, /raMt^, &c., enjoyed distinction : worldly and per- 
verse men, encouraged in their wickedness, boasted of 
their villany." Let it be well noted that none of this is 
Protestant testimony. Nothing can be more full and ex- 
plicit than the testimony of Romanist writers on this 
point. I have given but a small specimen from abundant 
stores. 



CHAPTEH YII. 

APPEAL FOR JUDGMENT TO ALL TRUE AMERICANS. 

A PART of the evidence which it was mj purpose to 
adduce has been presented. Before I proceed to make 
additional statements, I ask leave to say a few words to 
my Protestant fellow-countrymen throughout this nation. 

In the providence of God, you are placed in circum- 
stances of great interest and responsibility. You are 
called on to judge of the character of the Papal corpora- 
tion, not as a theme of abstract speculation, not as a mere 
historical question, but as a matter of individual and per- 
sonal as well as of general interest. You have sought 
no war with the Papacy ; but the Papacy has declared war 
on you and on your children. This nation, as a Protes- 
tant nation, has commenced an attack upon no religious 
system, but has proclaimed equal rights to all ; but upon 
us, as a Protestant nation, the Papal corporation and their 
agents have commenced an attack. 

They declare that the territory which we occupy be- 
Icp.gs to them and to their lord the pope. They declare 
that we Protestants have invaded their territory, but that 
they have never relinquished their claims to it, but intend 
yet to make them good. 

How great their power may be to execute these 
schemes this is not the place to consider. If we may 

(81) 



82 



THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED. 



trust their own statements, they regard it as adequate and 
their success as sure. 

One thiug, at least, is certain — the system still wields 
immense power throughout the world ; and as it is or- 
ganized by a permanent central power, sustained by the 
society of the Jesuits and other extensive combinations, it 
has greatly the advantage over unorganized resistance, or 
resistance of men not aware of the depth of its principles 
of perfidy and treachery. 

There is, therefore, no more important point in this 
whole controversy than that which meets you here. 
Charges have been laid before you and evidence adduced ; 
and now you are called on to give judgment. Linked in 
with this evidence is proof of the use made of such prin- 
ciples of treachery in the work of persecution and blood- 
shed. 

From a regard to our national welfare, you are called 
on, then, to judge fairly, but fearlessly and thoroughly, of 
the true character and the fundamental principles of this 
corporation. Nor is this all. The interests of humanity, 
and the dishonor and wrongs of the martyrs of past ages, 
equally demand such a judgment from you ; and to this 
work you are summoned by the providence of God. 

You occupy, therefore, a station of peculiar dignity 
and of immense responsibility. A judgment is demanded 
of you, based upon the highest principles of historical 
truth and justice, and invested with the highest power of 
moral emotion. 

And now I ask, in view of the evidence adduced, Is it 
not manifest that the Romish corporation do avowedly 
place their own interests, as a carporation, above all other 
interests whatever? Do they not declare that all who 
dissent from their views and renounce their authority are 



APPEAL FOR JUDGMENT TO ALL TRUE AMERICANS. 83 



by that act at once disfranchised of all their rights ? All 
obligations of veracity and fidelity towards them cease. 
Their rights of protection and defence are vacated. -They 
are at once outlawed and intestate. Nay, more : to massacre 
and exterminate them is a duty. 

Are not these things so, according to the constitutional 
law of this corporation ? And is it not a dictate of justice, 
as well as of common sense, to judge of such a corporation 
by its constitutional law, and not by the irresponsible state- 
ments of interested apologists ? 

Moreover, have not these principles been imbodied in 
facts on a most stupendous scale for at least seven cen- 
turies ? and have not leagues, and bonds, and covenants 
been broken ? Have not fraud and delusion been employed, 
and has not the blood of millions been shed, under the in- 
fluence of these principles ? 

Is not this corporation, therefore, responsible this day 
before God and before man for these principles and for 
their results ? Do you not judge of any national admin- 
istration, whether whig or democratic, by their avowed 
principles and measures as carried out in fact, and not by 
the plausible statements of interested partisans here and 
there ? Ought you not to judge of this corporation on 
the same principle ? And if you thus judge it, can you 
come to any other conclusion than that it is a conspiracy 
against the interests, and rights, and even the lives of all 
who disown their sway, which no principles of veracity or 
integrity can bind ? 

If the voice of blood could cry from the ground, if the 
slaughtered millions who have been disfranchised by them, 
and who have fallen on the plains of France, Spain, Holland, 
and northern Italy, or have closed their lives in dungeons 
or in the autos dafe of the Inquisition, could call aloud to 
you, they would say, " Be not deceived : we know by sad and 



84 



THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED. 



bloody experience the reality and the relentless power of 
those principles in the hands of that despotism on which, 
in the providence of God, you are now called to sit in 
judgment. Awake, then, from all delusions, and, at the call 
of divine Providence, exercise righteous judgment for God 
and for humanity. Be not outwitted. Let no plausible 
pretences or smooth evasions turn you aside from a deep 
and thorough scrutiny of the facts of the case." 

Consider, then, in the first place, that there have been 
laid before you, not the mere assertions of single in- 
dividuals like Mr. Brownson and Charles Butler, nor of 
scholastic bodies devoid of authority like the foreign 
universities, nor of individual bishops. There have been 
laid before you solemn and authentic decisions of the 
highest and most authoritative bodies known in the Eoman 
world. The constitution of the United States is not more 
a standard of judgment as to the principles of this nation 
than are these decisions as to the principles of the Romish 
system. Nor can any pope or council hereafter condemn 
and rescind them as false. Such an act would be suicidal. 
It would be a public confession that the pope and a coun- 
cil are fallible. Nay, more : that they have taught the 
doctrines of devils on points of the highest moment. It 
is, therefore, death to the system to condemn and renounce 
these decisions as false. 

2. Consider, also, that these are only a specimen from a 
great storehouse of similar facts. It would be tedious 
to adduce all the evidence that exists, especially in the 
form of Papal acts, assuming and based on these principles. 
For long centuries they were the established principles and 
practice of the Papal world, in connection with thek indred 
doctrine of the persecution and slaughter of heretics. 
They were announced by the greatest of the popes, acqui- 
esced in by bishops, confirtned by general and provincial 



APPEAL FOR JUDGMENT TO ALL TRUE AMERICANS. 85 



councils, and introduced into the canon law, and carried 
into effect, without remorse and without ecclesiastic^ 
protest, for long ages. 

3. Consider once more, and this is a point of the deep- 
est and most thrilling interest, that nothing but want of 
power prevented their thorough application to all Euro- 
pean ^Protestants as they were applied to the Albigenses 
and the Waldenses. Repeated leagues and conspiracies 
of the Romish powers of Europe were formed, and false- 
hood and treachery were unsparingly used, to effect this 
purpose. The massacre of St. Bartholomew was the re- 
sult of such a conspiracy ; and it was effected by the use 
of the most detestable fraud to delude and entrap the too 
confiding Protestants of France. 

A reconciliation was treacherously proposed between 
the Protestants and Romanists. It was to be inaugurated 
and confirmed by the marriage of Henry, the leader of the 
Protestants and King of Navarre, to Margaret, the sister 
of Charles IX., the Popish King of France. Under this 
pretext, multitudes of Protestants, and Coligny, their great 
general, were allured to Paris. Such w^re the assurances 
of friendship made by Charles, and his mother, Catharine 
de Medici, the infamous author of the plot, that he and all 
the Protestants were thrown entirely off their guard and 
led blindfolded into the toils of Popish malignity and 
treachery. Then followed scenes of horror unprecedented 
in the history of man. At midnight the tocsin tolled ; and 
at the signal the work of slaughter began. The streets 
of Paris were deluged with blood. From Paris, as from 
a centre, the massacre spread through France. Upon such 
a scene of infernal treachery and bloodshed the angels 
of God never looked down before. A thrill of horror 
pervaded the Protestant world. 

From the same principles and conspiracy came the mas- 
8 



86 



THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED. 



sacres perpetrated by the Duke of Alva in the Nether- 
lands. Hence came the Inquisition — hence the Spanish 
Armada. Hence came the plot to destroy the King of 
England and the Houses of Lords and Commons by one 
tremendous explosion of gunpowder, ever since known as 
the infamous Gunpowder Plot. 

4. Consider still more attentively the great fact, that all 
such acts of treachery, fraud, and violence, outraging alike 
truth and justice, God and man, were regarded by the 
Pope and court of Rome as the discharge of an exalted 
Christian duty. The treachery and massacre of St. Bar- 
tholomew, in particular, were commemorated, among other 
religious services, by a Te Deiim, as well as by the casting 
of two medals, with inscriptions commemorative of the 
deed. On one side of one of the medals was the inscrip- 
tion. Virtus in rebelles — " Yalor against rebels." On the 
other, Pietas excitavit justitiam — '"Piety aroused justice." 
On another coin issued by Pope Gregory is seen an 
angel, armed with a sword and a cross, attacking the her- 
etics. Thus the pope gave the sanction of God and his 
angels to this infamous deed of treachery and blood. 

5. Consider once more, that in view of all the preced- 
ing facts, even according to their own doctrines, the Pom- 
ish corporation and all who choose to remain Romanists 
are irretrievably committed to the avowal and defence of 
these principles and their practical results. There is no 
one point which they urge on us so incessantly as the in- 
dispensable necessity of this infallible corporation to set- 
tle the canon of the Bible and the rest of the rule of faith, 
and then to interpret them and promulgate infallibly the 
true doctrines of the church. This is, as I have shown, 
the central point, the very life, of the system. And now, 
will they turn around and repudiate the decisions of this 
very infallible body, to whom they are urging us to sub- 



APPEAL FOR JUDGMENT TO ALL TRUE AMERICANS. 87 

mit in order to escape endless perdition ? Will they con- 
cede the fallibility of their church in a case the most mo- 
mentous that the mind of man can conceive ? A sacred 
regard to truth is the great bond of human society. But 
not only to violate truth, but to do it as a means of mur- 
der, and that on a scale of terrific magnitude, is the estab- 
lished doctrine and practice of the Komish corporation. 
If, in a case so momentous as this, they have deluged the 
nations with blood by their false and damnable doctrines, 
then what shadow of confidence do they deserve in any 
other case ? 

The only logical course by which any Romanist can 
avoid a rejection of this corporation is to advocate and 
defend the principles themselves. 

Yet such principles are in this age so odious and ob- 
noxious, especially in Great Britain and in this country, 
that every effort has been made to escape from this po- 
sition. 

To these efforts I shall next call your attention. 



CHAPTER YIII. 



THE GALLICAN, OR FRENCH, DOCTRINE. 

To understand this, it is necessary to consider a few 
historical facts. In consequence of the extreme despotism 
and corruption of the Pope and court of Rome, an effort 
was made a little before tlie reformation to limit his power 
and to reform his court. At the council of Constance, 
by a solemn decree, a general council was declared su- 
perior to the pope, and authorized to reform him and his 
court. Even the Romish world were driven to this course 
by the extremity of his despotism. But, after the coun- 
cil rose, the centralizing power of the pope, operating 
steadily, baffled their efforts ; and the Papal court has ever 
since repudiated their decree. 

After the reformation, Louis XIY., of France, the most 
powerful monarch of the age, determined to make another 
effort to limit the power of the pope. He therefore aimed 
a blow at the doctrine of the pope's supremacy over kings. 
Up to this time, that supremacy, and the consequent right 
of deposing them and of absolving their subjects from 
their oaths, had been the firmly-established doctrine of the 
Romish system. But, under the influence of Louis, the 
Romish clergy of France, in 1682, made a declaration, in 
which, among other things, they declared that " kings and 
sovereigns are not subjected to any ecclesiastical power 
by the order of God in temporal things ; and their sub- 

(88) 



THE GALLTCAN, OR FRENCH, DOCTRINE. 



89 



jects cannot be released from the obedience which they 
owe them, nor absolved from their oath of allegiance." 

The Pope and the court of Rome were, of course, indig- 
nant in the extreme. By a multitude of writers they viru- 
lently assailed the declaration, and threatened anathemas 
and excommunications. 

But Louis rallied his forces for the defence of his clergy. 
By an edict, he forbade all persons, secular and regular, 
subjects or strangers, throughout his dominions, to teach 
or write any thing contrary to this declaration, and com- 
manded his whole clergy to inculcate and defend the doc- 
trine therein contained. 

No doubt Louis would have been deposed and his bish- 
ops excommunicated by the pope had he not feared to see 
France in revolt from him, after the example of England. 
He feared to see Louis XIY. walking in the steps of Hen- 
ry YHI. He therefore endured what he could not pre- 
vent. Yet, for some time, he refused to send bulls of in- 
stitution to French bishops newly elected until they wrote 
to him, each for himself, protesting that the clergy of 
France did not intend to make a decree of faith by their 
declaration, and assuring him of their profound submis- 
sion to the rights of the holy chair. 

The doctrine of this declaration is called, indifferently, 
the Galilean, or the French, or the Cisalpine, doctrine. 
That of the court of Rome is called the Italian, or Trans- 
alpine, doctrine. It is, in fact, the doctrine of the popes 
of the middle ages. Of the Galilean doctrine, the chief 
defender was the celebrated Bossuet. 

The French Catholic historians, Dupin and Fleury, 
stood upon this ground. Hence, in their histories, they 
are free to expose and condemn to a certain extent the 
arrogant encroachments of the pope on the church as well 
as on the state. Hence, from their writings, Protestants 
8* 



90 



THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED. 



derive valuable aid in their warfare with the court of 
Rome. But, for the same reason, they are odious to the 
thorough defenders of the Papal power. 

All the universities consulted by Pitt also belonged to 
the same school, and were consulted for this reason. 

Besides the divines and laymen of the Gallican school, 
there are other Romanists in France and elsewhere who 
repudiate the doctrine of the pope's temporal supremacy in 
Italy in the States of the Church. They consider this as the 
result of a scheme of worldly ambition, and pernicious in its 
tendencies and results to the spiritual character of the Pa- 
pacy and to all the interests of civil society. Of this class 
is M. Daunou, a learned French civilian, who has written 
an able history of the court of Rome, designed to expose 
the frauds and forgeries through which this temporal 
power was first gained and its destructive influence on the 
interests of Europe. From such writers, also, who still re- 
gard the pope as properly the spiritual head of the church, 
much aid can be derived in our warfare with the Papacy. 
But of course sucli writers are more hated by the court - 
of Rome than even the writers of the Gallican school. 

We are now prepared to understand the course of 
events in England and America and the present position 
of the defenders of the Papal corporation. 

The genuine doctrines of that corporation are so re- 
pugnant to the convictions of England and America, and 
so odious to every friend of humanity, that in some way it 
is necessary to blind and delude the too confiding Protes- 
tants, so as to put them off their guard until the system 
has gained foothold and power. 

To effect this, two courses have been adopted. The 
first was tried in England by Charles Butler and others ; 
the second in this country, by "Bishops Kenrick and 
Hughes. 



THE GALLICAN, OR FRENCH, DOCTRINE. 



91 



But at last the servants of the court of Rome are dis- 
covering reasons for abandoning these modes of defence 
and returning to the genuine Papal ground which has been 
set forth. This will appear as we shall consider, in order, 
the two great evasions to which reference has been made. 



CHAPTER IX. 



EVASION OF CHARLES BUTLER. 

In the light of the present age, and before the bar of 
the omniscient Judge of nations, the Romish corporation 
has been long summoned to give an account for those 
principles and deeds which have been set forth. But, as a 
corporation, it has, thus far, made no reply. It is not 
willing openly to avow and justify its past deeds of treach- 
ery and blood ; and it cannot, or will not, confess fallibility 
and damning guilt. 

Its partisans, therefore, have come forward from time to 
time to speak in its behalf. In England, Charles Butler 
has taken the lead ; in America, Bishops Kenrick, Hughes, 
and Purcell, and Mr. Brownson. 

The first mode of defence resorted to is that of Charles 
Butler. He follows Bossuet, and the Gallican, or French, 
school of divines. He abandons to just reprobation such 
decisions and deeds of the Popes of Rome as have been 
stated, but endeavors to prove that the doctrines in ques- 
tion are not taught by any general council, but solely by 
the popes, and that the doctrines and conduct of the 
popes in such cases were not the voice of the church. 

This defence is obviously at war, not only with that 
most unequivocal documentary evidence which I have pro- 
duced, but also with much not yet presented. 

The doctrines in question were as truly promulgated and 

(92) 



EYASIOX OF CHARLES BUTLER. 



9B 



sustained by general councils as by popes. This has been 
proved as to some councils, and is true of others. Six gen- 
eral councils, in principle or in practice, or in both, sanc- 
tioned the violation of engagements and breach of trust for 
the sake of ecclesiastical utility. This view cannot be 
carried out except by misrepresenting, evading, or denying 
the plainest facts of history. Yet Charles Butler adopted 
this course and used such fraud and evasion, because to 
conduct the Romish cause to a safe issue on any other 
ground seemed hopeless at the time. It seems to have 
been with him a stroke of policy. 

Mr. Brownson, however, coincides with me in thinking 
it poor policy to defend the Papacy by denying or ignoring 
any obvious and notorious matters of fact. 

The course of Butler and of all others who adopt the 
principles of the Galilean party he repudiates as at war 
with facts, dishonorable to the great popes of the middle 
ages, and ruinous to Romanism in its ultimate tendencies 
and results. It was only adopted, he tells us, because the 
Romanists were then weak and cowed down, and is utterly 
unfit for these times of higher courage and bolder enterprise. 

As to the acts of popes in deposing sovereigns and dis- 
solving oaths of allegiance, which Butler repudiates as no 
part of the system of Romanism, he says, — 

" The answers which the church gives to all great prac- 
tical questions have become historical. These answers 
are in many instances, no doubt, very offensive to the 
spirit of the present age, and such as the prevailing public 
opinion denounces ; but there they stand on the page of 
history, and can be neither honestly nor successfully de- 
nied or explained away. What the church has done, what 
she has expressly or tacitly approved in the past, — that 
is exactly what she will do, expressly or tacitly approve, 
in the future, if the same circumstances occur. This may 



94 



THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED. 



be a difficulty, an embarrassment ; but it will not do to shrink 
from it. We are responsible for the past history of the 
church in so far as she herself has acted ; and to attempt to 
apologize for it by an appeal to the opinion of the times, 
or to explain it in conformity with the prevailing spirit 
and theories of non-Catholics in our age, is only to 
weaken the reverence of the faithful for the church, and 
yield the victory to her enemies." 

We agree with Mr. Brownson in regarding the course 
of Butler and the Galileans as fatal to the church. 

For, suppose that it were true — which it is not — that 
no general councils had sanctioned such decisions and 
deeds of the great popes of the middle ages ; suppose, too, 
that the popes are not infallible without a general council ; 
suppose — what is not true — that a decision ex cathedra, 
acquiesced in by the bishops, is not deemed infallible. 
We ask, Why did not the church in some form rebuke the 
popes, and set them right, if they were teaching the doc- 
trines of devils and reducing them to practice ? If there 
was infallibility any where in the Romish corporation dur- 
ing those long and bloody centuries, why did it not in 
some way show itself ? Did not the Romish corporation 
then know that those principles and deeds of the popes 
were wrong which Charles Butler and the Galileans now 
BO loudly condemn ? If they did, then why did they not 
condemn them ? If they did not, then what a mockery is 
it to call that an infallible corporation which could not, 
and did not, defend either themselves or their head for 
long centuries from errors so gigantic, — promulgated to the 
nations as the truths of God Almighty, the rejection of 
which would surely encounter his wrath, — or from their in- 
evitable results in deeds of treachery and blood that have 
ever since caused a thrill of horror among the nations! 
After Charles Butler has denounced as errors and crimes 



EVASION OF CHARLES BUTLER. 



95 



the solemn decisions and acts of the popes of the middle 
ages, deemed the most illustrious in the long line of the 
sovereigns of the church, how can he expect any Prot- 
estant to retain the least respect for the Papal church or 
her head in any age ? 



CHAPTER X. 



EVASION OF BISHOPS HUGHES AND KENRICK. 

The other mode of evading the facts, as to the deposing 
power of the pope and the invalidation of oaths, is to 
resolve the whole matter into the peculiar state of society 
in the middle ages, in which it was the will of the rulers 
and of the people that the pope should exercise such 
power. 

On this ground Bishop Hughes, in 1843, defended the 
Papal corporation, in his lecture before the Irish Emigra- 
tion Society in New York. Speaking of the Papal cor- 
poration, he says, p. 12, " If she has, at times, interfered 
with the civil prerogatives of temporal sovereigns, her 
right to do so is not founded on her divine charter, but 
resulted either from the concession of the states themselves, 
or from the absolute exigency ot the circumstances." 

At still greater length has Bishop Kenrick defended 
this view, in his labored Vindication of the Primacy of the 
Pope of Rome. He says, " By the will of princes and of 
nations, and at their earnest solicitation, he intervened in 
former ages, and, exercising a pacific protectorate, main- 
tained the rights of all.^ * * * longer em- 
ploys a power which the will and the wants of the nations 
once placed in his hands, but which they have again in 
their caprice wrested from him." — Pp. 304, 305. 

(96) 



EVASION- OF BISHOPS HUGHES AND KENRICK. 



97 



Both of these bishops also assure us that from this state 
of things vast benefits flo-^ved to the world. 

Concerning this stupendous evasion, I remark, in the 
first place, that it is directly at war with facts. 

The Papal deposing power and dissolution of oaths 
was not a "pacific protectorate," established by the na- 
tions, but a constant stimulus to revolt and civil war. 
Against all sovereigns who did not blindly obey the pope 
it gave him full power to fan the flames of discontent 
and to arouse his subjects to rebellion. It was even used to 
stir up the children of kings to the vilest treachery towards 
their parents. Such was the course taken by the popes 
towards the children of the hated and anathematized 
Henry lY. 

On this point it is well to place in pointed contrast the 
words of Bishop Kenrick and those of the celebrated pri- 
mate Bossuet. It is an illustrious specimen of the " va- 
riations " of Romanism. 

In his Defence of the Declaration of the Galilean Clergy, 
book iv. chap, xvii., Bossuet says, — 

" Whenever kings have been deposed by the Roman pon= 
tilFs in the exercise of such authority, never by any king, 
NEVER by the different orders of any kingdom, has this author- 
ity been recognized as lawful. On the other hand, kingdoms 
and kings have resisted it, and the result has been bloody 
foreign and civil wars ; wherefore the pope has not, in fact, 
ever bestowed kingdoms, but has only produced causes of 
war, and given a pretext and color to ambition and rebel- 
lion, and involved the whole world in the flames of war ; 
and, in a word, these depositions of kings by the authority of 
the pope have never been of the least use, but have caused 
immense odium and injury." 

In the second place, both of these writers, and Bishop 
Kenrick in particular, have inexcusably misrepresented 
9 



THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED. 



the real nature of the Papal claim as put forth by Gregory 

VII. , the great founder of the system, and by his successors. 
With true Jesuitical craft, Bishop Ken rick has avoided 
all quotations from the letters of Gregory to the sovereigns 
and ecclesiastics of Europe, in which he unequivocally 
developed his purpose to reduce all temporal rulers to the 
position of feudal vassals to the holy see, binding them by 
an oath of allegiance similar to that by which the bishops 
were soon bound, and Avhich they take even to this day. 
He does not quote his reputed claims of a divine right to 
do all this. On the other hand, against both the letter 
and the spirit of the act of deposition, he represents 
Gregory as acting by an authority conferred on him by 
the nations. In a series of twelve letters to the bishop, 
published in the Christian Alliance some years since, I 
at some length exposed v/hat I could not but consider as 
his deliberate Jesuitical frauds, designed to hoodwink and 
delude my honorable and magnanimous fellow-citizens. 
I have not room at present to go farther into the details 
of the case. 

It is enough to say, in general, that nothing can be more 
at war with notorious facts than this evasion. Where or 
when did Gregory YII., or Innocent III., or Boniface 

VIII. , or any other of those imperious lords of the church 
declare or even hint that they derived their powers from 
either rulers or the people, or that they were acting in 
their name? They claimed their powers directly from 
God, through Peter, the great head of the church. Nor 
did the nations ever pretend that it belonged to them to 
confer such power on the pope. The very idea is ridicu- 
lous to any one who knows the spirit and the convictions 
of that age. 

It deserves notice, also, that these claims of the pope, as 
head of the church, do not reet on his own unsustained 



EVASION OF BISHOPS HUGHES AND KENRICK. 99 



assumptions. In the great general council of Lyons, in 
1245, Pope Innocent lY. and the council together con- 
firmed the doctrine of the divine right of the pope and 
of the Papal corporation to depose monarchs. The pope 
deposed Frederic II. ; and they concurred with the pope, 
proclaiming their decision as the judgment of God and 
their own, but not referring, even remotely, to a delegated 
power received from the people. The same principles- 
were established in the fourth Lateran council under 
Innocent III. and by many other general councils. 

Moreover, in the long run, this evasion is no less fatal 
to the Papal system than the other. According to it, on 
questions of the highest conceivable moment, the pope 
leaves his lofty position, as filling the place of God on 
earth, to become a mere fallible tribune, or president, or 
referee of human appointment among contending nations. 
He is a mere fallible agent of human, uninspired society, 
and not its lord and head. It in fact betrays the cause 
of the Papacj^ and the Romish church, through fear of the 
enlightened, popular sentiments of the present age. 

Mr. Brownson sees the logical results of this evasion also, 
and boldly repudiates it. He also declares it to be a,t war 
with facts. Civil governments and human society, he er- 
roneously affirms, did acknowledge the supremacy of the 
pope over earthly rulers and his power to dissolve oaths ; 
but he insists that they did not confer it. Nor did the 
pope ever concede or intimate that such was the basis of 
his power. Nothing can be stronger than the assertions of 
Mr. Brownson in his review of M. Gosselin. He says, — 

" The whole current of history is against the author. 
He cannot adduce a single official act of pope or council 
which concedes that the temporal authority exercised was 
held only by a human title. All history fails to show an 
instance in which the pope, in deposing a temporal sover- 



100 



THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED. 



eign, professes to do it by the authority vested in him 
by the pious belief of the faithful, generally received max- 
ims, the opinion of the age, the concessions of sovereigns, 
or the civil constitution and public laws of Catholic states. 
On the contrary, he alv/ays claims to do it by the authori- 
ty committed to him as the successor of the prince of 
the apostles, by the authority of his apostolic ministry, by 
the authority committed to him of binding and loosing, by 
the authority of Almighty God, of Jesus Christ, King of 
kings and Lord of lords, whose minister, though unworthy, 
he asserts that he is ; or some such formula, which solemnly 
and expressly sets forth that his authority is held by 
divine right, by virtue of his ministry, and exercised sole- 
ly in his character of vicar of Jesus Christ on earth. To 
this, we believe, there is not a single exception. Wher- 
ever the popes cite their titles, they never, so far as we can 
find, cite a human title, but always a divine title. Whence 
is this ? Did the popes cite a false title ? Were they ig- 
norant of their own title ? or was this assertion of title 
an empty form, meaning nothing ? This is a grave matter ; 
and this fact alone seems to us decisive against the author." 

He also says, — 

" One of two things, it seems to us, must be admitted, 
if we have regard to the undeniable facts in the case ; 
namely, either the popes usurped the authority they exercised 
over sovereigns in the middle ages, or they possessed it by 
virtue of their title as vicars of Jesus Christ on earth. We 
do not, therefore, regard M. Gosselin's theory as tenable ; 
and we count his attempted defence of the pope on the 
ground of human right a failure. 

" There is, in our judgment, but one valid defence of the 
popes in their exercise of temporal authority in the' mid- 
dle ages over sovereigns ; and that is, that they possess it 
by divine right, or that the pope holds that authority by 
virtue of his commission from Jesus Christ, as the succes- 
sor of Peter, the prince of the apostles, and visible head 
of the church. Any defence of them on a lower ground 
must, in our judgment, fail to meet the real points in the 
case, and is rather an evasion than a fair, honest, direct, 



EVASION OF BISHOPS HUGHES AND KENIIICK. 101 



and satisfactory reply. To defend their power as an ex- 
traordinary power, or as an accident in church history, 
growing out of the peculiar circnmstances, civil constitu- 
tion, and laws of the times, now passed away, perhaps for- 
ever, may be regarded as less likely to displease non- 
Catholics and to offend the sensibilities of power than to 
defend it on the ground of divine right and as inherent in 
the divine constitution of the church ; but, even on the low 
ground of policy, we do not think it the wisest in the long 
run. Say what v/e wdll, we can gain little credit with 
those we would conciliate. Always, to their minds, will 
the temporal power of the pope by divine right loom up 
in the distance ; and always will they believe, however 
individual Catholics here and there may deny it or nom- 
inally Catholic governments oppose it, that it is the real 
Roman Catholic doctrine, to be reasserted and acted the 
moment that circumstances render it prudent or expe- 
dient. We gain nothing with them but doubts of our sin- 
cerity, and w^e only weaken among ourselves that warm 
and generous devotion to the holy father which is due 
from every one of the faithful, and which is so essential 
to the prosperity of the church in her unceasing struggles^ 
with the godless powers of this world." 

He also asserts that the position thus defended by him 
is that of the leading Romish divines : — 

" He cannot be unaware that the doctrine he rejects is 
the most logical, the most consonant to Catholic instincts, 
the most honorable to the dignity and majesty of the Pa- 
pacy, or that it has undeniably the weight of authority on 
its side. The principal Catholic authorities are certainly 
in favor of the divine right ; and the principal authorities 
wdiich he is able to oppose to them are of parliaments, 
sovereigns, jurisconsults, courtiers, and prelates and doc- 
tors who sustained the temporal powers in their wars 
against tile popes. The Galilean doctrine was, from the 
first, the doctrine of the courts, in opposition to that of 
the vicars of Jesus Christ, and should, therefore, be re- 
garded by every Catholic with suspicion." 
9* 



102 



THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED. 



It is interesting to notice that nevertheless, in view of 
the popular feeling in this country, Bishops Hughes and 
Kenrick have both undertaken to defend the course of the 
popes during the middle ages on the very grounds which 
Mr. Brownson so pointedly condemns. 

Their defence, however, deserves no confidence as an 
expression of their real opinions. It was, no doubt, de- 
signed to delude Protestants for the time, till the Romish 
corporation might gain strength to assume a new po- 
sition. 

I am led to this conclusion by the fact that the Romish 
agents, both in France and in this country, seem to be at 
length disclosing their purpose to assume the ground 
which I have stated as the real Papal ground, and which 
is the only consistent and logical basis on which to at- 
tempt a defence of the Papacy. The old Gallican doc- 
trine is also generally abandoned in France ; and we are 
coming to the simple position, that all who revolt from 
the Romish corporation, by that very act are disfranchised 
and stripped of all their rights. 

Mr. Brownson, in his Review for January, 1852, makes 
the bold and explicit avowal that Protestantism of every 
form has not, and never can have, any rights. — P. 64. 

He says also that "we lose all the breath we expend 
in declaiming against bigotry and intolerance, and in 
favor of religious liberty, or the right of any man to be 
of religion or no religion, as best pleases him, which some 
tv/o or three of our journalists would fain persuade the 
world is Catholic doctrine." 

It seems, then, that when Mr. Brownson, in a former 
extract, speaks of conceding to us equal rights, he means, 
as we intimated, so long as they have no power to take 
them away. But as soon as Catholicity is triumphant, 
then beware. 



EVASION OF BISHOPS HUGHES AND KENRICK. 103 

I find in the Letters of an Independent Irishman, ad- 
dressed to Bishop Fitzpatrick, the following passage : — 

"Says Bishop Kenrick, 'No faith with heretics;' and 
says Bishop O'Connor, of Pittsburg, 'Religious liberty is 
merely endured until the opposite can he carried into execution 
'without peril to the Catholic world.^ This bigoted sentiment 
is the same in kind wdth that quoted from the Catholic 
lieview — no rights for Protestants, or any body else ex- 
cept Catholics. Fine doctrine for a republic ! Of pre- 
cisely the same nature was the sentiment lately uttered 
by the Bishop of St. Louis : ' Catholicity will one day 
rule America ; and then religious liberty is at an end.'' No 
doubt of it. The St. Louis bishop and I agree exactly 
on this point ; and such, I presume, is your opinion also.". 

I have not verified these quotations ; but, whether they 
have used these precise words or not, I have no doubt 
that they express the real sentiments of those men. 

^Whatever any American bishop may say, one act of 
theirs speaks louder than all their professions of patriot- 
ism ; yea, louder than seven thunders. They have, by a 
solemn decision of their provincial council at Baltimore, 
significantly proclaimed that they adopt the system of 
which the maxims are such as have been set forth. 

Into the midst of this Protestant nation, by a special 
act of the Baltimore council of Romish bishops, they have 
introduced the idolatrous worship of G-regory YII. ; thus 
selecting and presenting him, of all the saints of the 
Romish calendar, to our own people as an object of wor- 
ship, and fixing the eyes of this nation on him as the 
object of peculiar attention and reverence. 

We accordingly look at his character, and find him to 
be the notorious author of the system of deposing kings, 
and the projector of a universal feudal mionarchy, of which 
he was to be the head, and all kings, nobles, and rulers 
his sworn vassals. We find him, in endeavoring to carry 



104 



THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED. 



out liis claims and plans, inyolving Italy and Germany for 
more than thirty years in a bloody civil war, and estab- 
lishing precedents which for centuries disturbed the peace 
of all Europe and subjected the nations to the most ap- 
palling despotism ever known. Pius Y. canonized him as 
a saint. 

The service prescribed by him for the festival of Greg- 
ory, in the Roman breviary, specially commemorates his 
acts in the following terms: "Gregory shone like the 
sun in the house of God. He deprived Henry of his king- 
dom and freed his vassals from their fealty. All the 
earth is full of his doctrine. He has departed to heaven. 
Enable us, by his example and advocacy, to overcome all 
adversity. May he intercede for all the sins of the peo- 
ple." Alexander YII. introduced this office into the Ro- 
man basilics. Clement XI., in 1704, recommended it to 
the Cistercians, and, in 1710, to the Benedictines. It 
was approved by Benedict XIII., and retains its place in 
the Roman breviary. 

Let it now be noticed still further, that this act of can- 
onization had special reference to the deposing doctrine. 
It indorses it, as practised by Gregory, in the most ample 
manner. It regards it as the doctrine of all times and 
all countries, and declares that the earth is full of that 
doctrine. 

Nor is this all. The maxims of Gregory VII. have not 
been renounced by the court of Rome in the nineteenth 
century. I refer you to the following statement of Dau- 
nou, that eminently learned and candid Roman Catholic : 
"If we had lost the twenty-seven propositions of Hilde- 
brand, they might all be found in the acts of Pius YII., 
A. D. 1800-1823. This will not astonish those who have 
studied the history of the court of Rome. While it exists, 
this court will have no other principles. Scarcely will it 



EVASION OF BISHOPS HUGHES AND KEXRICK. 105 



be able to dissemble them, even in times which require the 
most circumspection. We shall, without doubt, see this 
court taking advantage of all circumstances, which will 
allow her still to maintain them, by anathemas, by wars, 
by catastrophes, and by vast proscriptions." 

If this seems to be bold language for a Roman Catholic, 
let it be compared with the language of Bossuet, whose 
words I have already quoted. It is but a faithful carrying 
out of the spirit of his statements. 

Let me then disclose, for the benefit of American repub- 
licans, some of this doctrine of Gregory, of which the 
earth is declared to be full. Baronius regards the twenty- 
seven propositions as a genuine composition of Gregory 
himself ; others regard them as a collection of sentiments 
derived from his letters ; but all agree that they truly rep- 
resent the doctrine of his epistles and of his acts. Indeed 
they can all be derived from his letters. 

" He alone can invest himself with the insignia of em- 
pire." 

" He has authority to depose emperors." 

" He can absolve the subjects of bad princes from every 
oath of fealty.''" 

All princes kiss his feet alone.'' 

" His name only is to be pronounced in the churches." 

" It is the only name in the world." 

Such is the doctrine of Gregory YII., of which, accord- 
ing to the services of the Papal church, the world is full. 

But in all this it seems that the bishops of that church 
in the United States of America see no ambition and no 
usurpation. No ; for Bishop Kenrick tells us that Pope 
Gregory VII. " is recognized as a saint, and cannot, without 
temerity, be accused of amhitionJ'' Moreover, that very 
church which recognizes him as a saint celebrates his 
deposing doctrine and deeds in acts of solemn worship 
at his shrine. 



THE PAPAL CONSPIEACY EXPOSED. 

Moreover, Bishop Kenrick really, though not openly, 
declares that the true and proper state of society was that 
which existed whilst these doctrines were in force, and 
that the world has been a loser by rejecting them. All 
this was fully evinced in the letters to which reference has 
been made. 

With such facts before us, is there any reason to doubt 
that the Romish bishops of America would, if they could, 
carry out the extremest views of the Italian school, of 
which Gregory VII. is the founder and head ? 

It is also a sign of the times that the same views are 
reproduced in England, France, and America. The 
French school is dying out ; and all-pervading efforts are 
made to establish the most absolute doctrines of the court 
of Eorae, which have already deluged the world in blood. 

In England, a Romish paper called the Rambler speaks 
as follows : — 

" Religious liberty, in the sense of a liberty possessed 
by every man to choose his own religion, is one of the 
most wicked delusions ever foisted upon this age by the 
father of all deceit. The very name of liberty — except in 
the sense of a permission to do certain definite acts — 
ought to he banished from the domain of religion. It is neither 
more nor less than a falsehood. JVb man has a right to choose 
his religion. None but an atheist can uphold the principles 
of religious liberty. Shall I, therefore, fall in with this 
abominable delusion? Shall I foster that damnable doctrine, 
that Socinianism, and Calvinism, and Anglicanism, and Ju- 
daism are not every one of them mortal sins like murder and 
adultery ? Shall I hold out hopes to my erring Protestant 
brother that I will not meddle with his creed if he will 
not meddle with mine? Shall I tempt him to forget that 
he has no more right to his religious views than he has to 
my purse, or my house, or my lifeblood ? No. Catholicis?n 
is the most intolerant of creeds. It is intolerance itself ; for 
it is the truth itself. We might as rationally maintain 
that a sane man has a right to believe that two and two 



EVASION OF BISHOPS HUGHES AND KENRICK. 107 

do not make four, as this theory of religious liberty. Its 
impiety is only equalled by its absurdity." 

This Tras republished and indorsed by the Shepherd of 
the Talley, a Romish paper at St. Louis. 

Bishop Keurick also is quoted by the Independent Irish- 
man as saying, — 

" Heresy and unbelief are crimes ; that is the whole of 
the matter. And in Christian countries, as in Italy and 
Spain for instance, where all the people are Catholic, 
and where the Catholic religion is an essential part of the 
law of the land, they will be punished as other crimes." 

The Bishop of St. Louis also is quoted by him as say- 
ing.— 

"Protestantism of every kind Catholicity inserts in her 
catalogue of mortal sins ; she endures it when and where 
she must ; but she hates it, and directs all her energies to 
effect its destruction. If the Catholics ever gain, which 
they surely will do, an immense numerical majority, re- 
ligious freedom in this country is at an end." 

Honestly they cannot say any thing else ; and clearly 
the principles of Brownson, with reference to the de- 
cisions of the pope and the church in the middle ages, 
involve all this, and also a full sanction of all their doc- 
trines, as to fraud, treachery, and falsehood, towards all 
out of the pale of the Romish church. They involve the 
maxim, which once he repudiated with indignation, that 
no faith is to be kept with heretics. 

All of these decisions are, as truly as any others, the an- 
swers of the church on great practical questions, and have 
become historical. To these he ought to apply his own 
words, — 

" These answers are in many instances, no doubt, very 
offensive to the spirit of the present age, and such as the 



108 



THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED. 



prevailing public opimon denounces ; but there they stand 
on the page of history, and can be neither honestly nor 
successfully denied or explained away. What the church 
has done, what she has expressly or tacitly approved in 
the past, — that is exactly what she will do, expressly or 
tacitly approve, in the future, if the same circumstanceB 
occur. This may be a difficulty, an embarrasment ; but it 
will not do to shrink from it. We are responsible for the 
past history of the church in so far as she herself has 
acted ; and to attempt to apologize for it by an appeal to 
the opinion of the times, or to explain it in conformity 
with the prevailing spirit and theories of non-Catholics 
in our age, is only to weaken the reverence of the faithful 
for the church and yield the victory to her enemies." 

This part of the subject, then, is plain. The real and 
infamous doctrines of the Romish corporation on veracity 
and the rights of Protestants can neither be concealed nor 
evaded. 

The -question of their power to gain the ascendency in 
this nation, and to carry out such principles, is not at 
present under discussion. Our present purpose is to en- 
able all candid men to decide what the principles of the 
Romish corporation are, to see that they are immutable, 
and that nothing will prevent them from carrying them 
out but want of power. 

Have I not, then, proved the propositions which I have 
announced ? Do not the pope and his corporation place 
their own interests above all others whatever? Do they 
not at once disfranchise all who renounce their authority ? 
Do they not declare all their rights vacated ? Do they 
not declare that all obligations of veracity and fidelity 
towards them cease ; that all claims of protection or de- 
fence are vacated ; that they are at once outlawed and in- 
testate ; and that to massacre and exterminate them is a 
duty? 

Such is the fraudulent, treacherous, cruel, malignant, and 



EVASION OP BISHOPS HUGHES AND KENRICK, 109 



diabolical system that is conspiring against this country 
and against humanity, and with which we are called to 
contend. 

But there is a still lower depth of treachery into which 
the chief defenders of this system have fallen. The Jesuits 
advocate and defend all that I have stated, because they 
are the sworn defenders of the Pope of Rome. 

But, in carrying out their plans, they have carried the 
system of fraud and delusion to a more perfect develop- 
ment than ever before. 

We shall not understand the full power of the great 
conspiracy until we understand these men. 
10 



CHAPTER XI. 



THE JESUITS ON LYING. 

We are called on by divine Providence, as American 
citizens, not only to sit in judgment on the principles of the 
great central Romish corporation as to truth and human 
rights, but also of those subordinate corporations which are 
banded together in one great conspiracy to sustain and 
extend the authority of the central power. 

Of these, by far the most powerful and notorious is the 
order of the Jesuits. It arose soon after the reformation, 
and was organized for the express purpose of resisting its 
progress. It has rendered itself so infamous that it was 
once suppressed ; yet it was so essential to the Papacy 
that it has been again revived, and, under its head at 
Rome, is again pervading the world. 

It developed a code of morals which, as a whole, is per- 
fectly diabolical. It is not, however, my purpose here to 
expound that code in full, but to show that, on the great 
question of veracity, it is a fit exemplification of the au- 
thorized principles and general tendencies of the system 
of Rome. We should naturally expect this, since they 
have ever been the chief defenders of the see of Rome. 
It will not, then, be deemed an accidental coincidence if 
•we find them engaged in reducing the principles of lying, 
perjury, and slander to a systematic form. Their labors 
in this department I shall proceed to review. 

(110) 



THE JESUITS ON LYING. 



Ill 



Nor is tliis needless. No body of men are making such 
efforts to extend their power throughout our land. They 
know well that in consequence of their former conduct 
their order still rests under a load of infamy that has 
made the very name Jesuit a proverb, and a byword, and 
a hissing, and the terms Jesuitical and diabolical well 
nigh synonymous in the public mind. 

Mr. Brownson, therefore, in his newborn zeal for Ro- 
manism, has felt himself especially called on to vindicate 
these servants of the Papacy, as in a preeminent degree 
hated and slandered for righteousness' sake. 

It is, therefore, a work of no common interest and im- 
portance to investigate the avowed principles of the lead- 
ing authors of this order of men as it regards speaking 
the truth in our dealings with our fellow-men. 

To any one who has ever read the letters of Pascal 
there is little need to say much on this point. He made 
it notorious throughout the civilized world that their most 
prominent writers on morals totally subverted by their 
doctrines the very foundations of truth in the intercourse 
of man with man. 

I will but quote a few of their profligate maxiuis from 
the works of their standard authors. Pascal gives from 
Sanchez the following choice specimens of morality : — 

"It is lawful to use ambiguous terms, to give the impres- 
sion a different sense from that which you yourself under- 
stand."— Op. Mor., p. 2, b. iii. c. vi. u. 13. 

In the same place he says, " A person may take an oath 
that he has not done such a thing, though in fact he has, 
by saying to himself it was not done on a certain specihed 
day, or before he was born, or by concealing any other 
circumstance which gives another meaning to the state- 
ment# This is, in numberless instances, exti-emely conven- 



112 



THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED. 



ient, and is always very just when it is necessary to your 
health, honor, or property." 

Again : " It is the intention which stamps the character 
of the action." 

To illustrate this, Escobar, tr. iii. ex. iii. n. 48, gives 
this general rule : — 

Promises are not obligatory when a man has no inten- 
tion of being bound to fulfil them." 

Again : Bourne quotes from Sanchez, Op. Mor., lib. i. 
cap. X. Nos. 12, 13, p. 49 : "An oath obliges not beyond 
the intention of him who takes it." Here we have the fa- 
mous Jesuitical doctrine of " directing the intention " so 
as to promise or swear any thing that is desired, either 
for the church or for individual interest, and yet not be 
bound. 

The mode by which a Jesuit or any Romanist can enter 
a Protestant church by oath or covenant, without sin, is 
thus given, Bauny Sum., cap. vi. cone. iv. p. 73 : " He 
who maintains an heretical proposition without believing 
it, or who is a communicant among the Protestants with- 
out having his heart there, but out of pure derision, or to 
comply with the times, and to accomplish his designs, ought 
not to be esteemed a Protestant, because his understand- 
ing is not infected with error." 

As to truth in civil courts, Taberna, vol. ii. part ii. 
tract, ii. cap. xxxi. p. 288, speaks thus: "Is a witness 
bound to declare the truth before a legitimate judge ? No, 
if his deposition will injure himself, his family, or prop- 
erty, ov if he he a priest ; for a priest cannot be forced to tes- 
tify before a secular judged 

Again: Layman, lib. iv. tract, iii. cap. i. p. 78 : "It is 
not sufficient for an oath that we use the formal words, if 
we have not the intention and will to swear J' (See McGavin's 
Protestant, vol. ii. pp. 705-7.) 



THE JESUITS ON LYING. 



113 



It is worthy of notice that these profligate principles 
go beyond the maxim, that it is right to lie for ecclesias- 
tical utility. They subvert the foundations o5 truth in all 
things. No matter what words a man uses, if he secretly 
intends something else, he is not bound by promises or 
by oaths. 

No less damnable are their doctrines as to slander. 
These, of course, have a wide range, and have been ex- 
tensively used by the Jesuits in controversies and in 
blackening the characters of Protestants. They there- 
fore sustain an intimate relation to the management of all 
controversies between Eomanists and Protestants. It is 
an obvious dictate of honor to avoid personalities in ar- 
gument and to confine the attention to principles and 
facts. Especially is it a dictate, not only of honor, but of 
the word of God, not to try to destroy the force of argu- 
ments by slandering their authors. 

When a writer has endeavored to throw light upon an 
important subject, and stated principles and sustained his 
assertions by documents of unquestioned authority, it may 
be much easier to slander him personally, and call him a liar, 
a drunkard, an adulterer, than to answer his arguments. 
But one would hardly expect that men who are such saints 
that the world is not worthy of them would sanction such 
a mode of proceeding. Yet this the Jesuits have done. 
Their maxim is this : " It is no mortal sin to oppose a slan- 
derer by slandering him." Of course they must judge who 
a slanderer is ; and it is very easy to conclude that who- 
ever says any thing to the disadvantage of the order of 
the Jesuits is a slanderer, and that it becomes no mortal 
sin to slander him. This was charged upon them by Pas- 
cal in his fifteenth Provincial Letter, without the slightest 
hesitation, as a notorious principle of theirs ; and he sus- 
tained his charge by such an array of evidence that no 

10* 



114 



THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED. 



Jesuit to this day has been able in the slightest degree to 
destroy its force. Let us listen to the charge in the 
words of Pascal : — 

" It is my purpose to advance a step fartlier than merely 
to show that your writings are replete with calumnious 
representations. Falsehoods may be stated under an im- 
pression that they are truths ; but lying is characterized by 
the inteiition to deceive. I shall show that you design to 
deceive and calumniate, and that you purposely impute 
crimes to your enemies of which you know they are per- 
fectly innocent, because you believe it may be done with- 
out falling from a state of grace. And, though you may 
be as well acquainted as myself with this point of your 
morality, I shall beg permission to state it, that no further 
doubt may exist, by showing that I challenge you person- 
ally and individually on the subject, without even your 
being able to deny it, with all your assurance, unless at the 
same time you own that for which I reproach you. For this 
is a doctrine so common in your schools that you have not 
only maintained it in your writings, but even in your public 
theses, which is an act of the utmost presumption — as, for 
example, in that of Louvain, in the year 1645, in the fol- 
lowing words : 'It is only a venial sin to calumniate and 
ruin the credit of such as speak evil of you by accusing them 
of false crimes ' — Quidni non nisi veniale sit, detrahentis 
audoritatem magnam tibi noxiam falso crimine elidere ? 
This doctrine is so current amongst you that whoever 
dares to attack it you treat as an ignoramus and stu- 
, pid fellow." 

To one who has been brought up in a Protestant coun- 
try, and who is happily ignorant of those unfathomable 
depths of Satan into which the system of Romanism can 
sink the human mind, it seems impossible that any body 
of men pretending to call themselves Christians should ever 
have dared to teach such doctrines of devils, or could have 
so seared their consciences with a hot iron as thus to au- 
thorize and sanction the grossest slander, and even to 



THE JESUITS OX LYING. 



115 



treat as an ignoramus and a stupid fellow whoever dares 
to attack such doctrines. 

Listen, then, to the unanswerable proof of his asser- 
tions which Pascal produces : — 

"Not long ago this took place in regard to Father Qui- 
roga, a German capuchin, who opposed this doctrine, and 
was immediately attacked by Father Dicastiilus, who 
speaks of this dispute in these terms, {Be Just., 1. ii. tr. ii. 
disp, xii. n. 404 :) ' A certain grave friar, barefooted and 
deep cowled, — ciicuUatits, gymnopoda, — whose name I shall 
conceal, had the temerity to decry this opinion amongst 
some women and ignorant people as pernicious and scan- 
dalous, contrary to good manners, subversive of the peace 
of states and societies, and opposed, not only to all the 
Catholic doctors, but to all who may beconiB so. But I 
have maintained against him, and still maintain, that cal- 
umny, when made use of against a calumniator, though it 
be a lie, yet is not a mortal sin, nor contrary to justice 
or charity ; and, as a demonstration of this, I furnished 
him with a crowd of our fathers and whole universities 
whom I consulted, among others the Rev. Father John 
Gans, confessor to the emperor ; the Rev. Father Daniel 
Bastele, confessor to the Archduke Leopold ; Father 
Henry, who was the tutor of these two princes ; all 
the public and ordinary professors of the University of 
Yienna, (consisting entirely of Jesuits ;) all the professors 
of the University of Gratz, (all Jesuits ;) all the professors 
of the University of Prague, (of which the Jesuits are mas- 
ters :) from all of whom I have in my possession a written, 
signed, and sealed approbation of my opinion ; in addition 
to which I have Father Penualossa, a Jesuit, preacher to 
the emperor and the King of Spain ; Father Pilliceroli, a 
Jesuit ; and many o theirs, who have all judged this opin- 
ion probable previous to our dispute.' You. see, fathers, 
there are few opinions which you have taken so mucii 
pains to . establisii ; and, in fact, there are few which are 
so serviceable to you. For ^lis reason, you have impressed 
so much authority upon it that your casuists have made 
use of it as an indubitable principle. ' It is certain,' says 



116 



THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED. 



Caramuel, n. 1151, ' that it is a probable opinion that it 
is no mortal sin to bring a false accusation for the sake of 
preserving one's honor ; for it is maintained by upwards 
of twenty grave doctors, Gaspar Hurtado, Dicastillus, &c. 
Hence, if this doctrine be not probable, there is scarcely 
any one that is so in the whole system of divinity.' " 

Such is the proof adduced by Pascal ; and what can be 
more overwhelming ? And in what manner did the Jesu- 
its reply to it ? In an attempt to answer the Provincial 
Letters, published in Paris, 1659, p. 342, instead of condemn- 
ing Father Dicastillus' s position, they added more authori- 
ty TO it, by citing several authors, besides those mentioned 
before, in defence of it. 

Let any one now reflect on the length and breadth of 
the principles involved in this doctrine of the Jesuits, 
and he will fully sympathize with Pascal in the strong 
language of abhorrence with which he speaks of the 
system : — 

" 0, what an execrable system is this, and how utterly 
corrupt in all its main points and principles, that if this 
doctrine be not probable and safe in conscience, ' that a 
person may be accused falsely in order to preserve one's 
honor,' there is scarcely any one that is ! What can be 
more probable, fathers, than that those who hold this prin- 
ciple should sometimes put it in practice ? The depraved 
passions of mankind hurry them on with such impetuosity 
that it is inconceivable, when all conscientious scruples are 
done away, how violently they proceed. For instance, 
Caramuel writes in the same place, ' This maxim of Father 
Dicastillus the Jesuit, respecting calumny, was taught by 
a German countess to the daughter of the empress, who, 
believing that calumnies were but venial sins, spread 
abroad so many scandals and false reports every day that 
the whole court was put into a state of ferment and alarm. 
It is easy to perceive the use ^hey made of it ; so that, to 
quiet this tumult, it was found necessary to apply to a 
good father, a capuchin, named Quiroga, of exemplary 



THE JESUITS ON LYING. 



117 



conduct, (which was the reason Father Dicastillus had 
such a quarrel with him,) who told them plainly that this 
maxim was very pernicious, especially as held by women, 
and then took such especial care that the empress totally 
abolished the practice of it.' 

" It is by no means surprising that this doctrine should 
have produced some bad effects ; it would have been more 
so had it been otherwise. Self-love is always ready to 
persuade us that an attack made upon ourselves is unjust ; 
much more you, fathers, who are so blinded by vanity that 
you would make all the world believe, from your writings, 
that an injury attempted against your writings is an in- • 
jury done to the honor of the church ; and thus it 
would be strange if you were not to put this maxim 'in 
practice. We must not say, as those who do not know 
you do, How is it these good fathers calumniate their 
enemies, since it is endangering their own salvation ? But 
we must say, on the contrary. How is it these good fa- 
thers would lose any opportunity of decrying their ene- 
mies when they can do it without risking their own safety ? 
Let us, then, no longer be astonished at finding the Jesuits - 
calumniators. They are so with a safe conscience, and 
cannot be otherwise ; since, by the credit they have ac- 
quired in the world, they may revile others without any 
apprehension from the justice of men ; and, by that which 
they have acquired in cases of conscience, they have estab- 
lished maxims by which they are empowered to do as 
they choose, without dreading the justice of God. 

Take an illustration of those principles from the same 
author : — 

" A remarkable instance of this occurred in your disa- 
greement with M. Puys, a clergyman of St. Nisier, at 
Lyons ; and, as this affair furnishes a complete illustration 
of your spirit, I shall relate the principal circumstances. 
You know, fathers, that in 1649 M. Puys translated an 
excellent work, written by another capuchin, into French, 
' On the Duty of Christians to their own Parishes against 
those who wished to entice 'them away,' without using 
any invectives, and without either pointing to any religious 



118 



THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED. 



order or individual. Your fathers, however, took it to 
themselves ; and, paying no respect to an aged pastor, a 
judge in the primacy of France, and much honored by the 
whole city, your Father Alby wrote a violent philippic 
against him, which you yourselves sold in your churches 
on Assumption day ; in which, amongst other charges, he 
was accused ' of becoming scandalous by his gallantries, 
of being suspected of impiety, of being a heretic, an ex- 
communicated person, and deserving to be burned alive.' 
To this M. Puys replied ; but Father Alby, in a second 
publication, persisted in his former recriminations. Is it 
not then evident, fathers, either that you must be calumni- 
ators, or that you believed all the charges brought against 
the good priest, and therefore that it was needful that 
you should have seen him fully exculpated before you 
deemed him worthy of your friendship ? Attend now to 
what passed at the reconciliation, in presence of a great 
multitude of the most distinguished persons of the city, 
whose names are inserted below in the order in which 
they were placed in the paper drawn up on the 25th of 
Septeuiber, 1650.* In the presence of this assembly M. 
Puys made no other declaration than the following : 
' That what he had written was not intended for the Jesu- 
its ; that he had spoken in general against those who 
seduce the faithful from their parishes, witliout at all 
meaning to attack their society, for which, on the con- 
trary, he cherished a high regard.' This is in itself suf- 
ficient in regard to his apostasy, his revilings, and his 
excommunications, without any recantation or absolution. 
Father Alby afterwards, addressed him in these words : 
' Sir, my conviction that you attacked the society to which 
I have the honor to belong induced me to take up my pen 
to answer you, and I thought my manner of doing it was 
allowable ; but I have become better acquainted with your 

* M, De Ville, vicar general of the Cardinal de Lyon ; M, Scarron, canou 
and minister of St. Paul's ; M. Margat, chanter ; Messrs. Bouvand, Seve, Au- 
bert, and Dervieu, canons of St. Nisier ; M. du Gue, president of the treasares 
of l-'rance ; M. Groslier, provost of the merchants ; M. De Flechere, president 
and lieutenant general ; Messrs. De Boissat, De St. liomain, and De Bartoly, 

fentlemen; M. Burgeoise, king's chief advocate in the treasury office of 
"ranee; Messrs. De Cotton, father and son; M. Boniel ; who all signed the 
original declaration Avith M, Puys and Father Alby. 



THE JESUITS ON LYING. 



119 



intention. I now declare that there exists nothing which 
can prevent my esteeming you as a person of very en- 
lightened understanding, of a profound and orthodox faith, 
of irreproachable morals, and, in one word, a worthy pastor 
of your church. This declaration I make with high satis- 
faction, and beg these gentlemen to remember it.' 

" In truth, fathers, these gentlemen remember it perfectly 
well, and were more offended at your reconciliation than at 
your quarrel. For who does not admire Father Alby's 
speech? He does not say that he retracts on account of dis- 
covering M. Puys has changed his behavior and his doctrine, 
but merely ' because he found that it was not his intention to 
attack your society ; so that there is nothing to prevent 
him from being a good Catholic.'* He did not, therefore, 
believe him to be a heretic at all ; nevertheless, after 
accusing him of it, contrary to his own convictions, he 
does not acknowledge his error, but dares, on the contrary, 
to af&rm ' that he believes the manner in which he used 
him was allowable^ 

My good fathers, what can you be thinking about thus 
publicly to show that you only measure the faith and virtue 
of mankind by their opinions of your society ? How came 
it to pass that you were not apprehensive of making 
people believe, by your own confession, that you were im- 
postors and calumniators? What! shall the very same 
individual, and without any change in himself, but merely 
as he honors or opposes your society, be ' pious or impious, 
blameless or deserving excommunication, a worthy pastor 
of the church or fit only to be burned ; in one word, a 
Catholic or a heretic ' ? To oppose your society and to 
be a heretic are then, in your language, the same thing. 
A pretty kind of heresy indeed ! So, then, whenever 
one sees in your writings so many good Catholics called 
heretics, the meaning is, ' that you believe them to be in- 
imical to you.^ " 

Nor did this abominable system, thus opening the flood- 
gates of hell to pour forth all conceivable forms of slander 
on the world, remain a dead letter. It was put in force with 
incessant energy against all who dared to leave the Romish 



120 THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED. 

corporation to oppose the Jesuits and to aid in the work 
of exposing their abominations, and is in full force to this 
day. 

I shall also show the existence of the same spirit and 
incipient attempts to practise on the same principles 
among us so far as they dare. 

We have not, as yet, fully entered into the heart of the 
Papal war, and have not yet been compelled to learn 
what poisoned weapons of moral assassination the Jesuits 
and other leading advocates of the Papacy have in other 
ages used without scruple. But as it is a settled point 
that we are to meet that system in one more conflict, and 
that the last, it becomes us to study diligently the weapons 
with which it has always fought in former wars, and to be 
strong in the Lord and in the power of his might — to arm 
ourselves against it with the whole armor of God. 



CHAPTER XII, 



tJAUTIONS TO AMERICANS IN VIEW OF MODERN EXEMPLIFI- 
CATIONS OF THE PRINCIPLES OF LYING AND PERJURY, 

If, iu view of all the preceding statements, any one 
should say, After all, these are ancient principles and 
facts ; things are now changed for the better : it is not 
charitable or honorable to suppose that Romish bishops or 
laymen among us will deem it la merit to lie or perjure 
themselves for purposes of ecclesiastical utility, — I would 
request him, before coming to this conclusion, to open his 
eyes on some very instructive and significant facts, most 
of them of modern date. 

The idea that any Romanist will take oaths of allegiance 
to our country that he does not mean to keep is often re- 
pudiated as a slanderous imputation on honorable men. 
They say this under the influence of their own Protestant 
views, not reflecting that Romanism not only justifies, but 
encourages, such false swearing for the good of the church. 
If any are incredulous, then let them consider the case 
of Judge Gaston, a distinguished Romanist of North 
Carolina. 

The facts of the case are these : The constitution of 
that state was made when all intelligent men coincided 
with the views expressed by the Continental Congress 
in an address to the people of Great Britain, dated Oc- 
tober 31, 1774, 

11 (121) 



122 



THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED. 



In this, after expostulating against the favor shown to 
the Eomanists of Canada as dangerous to the liberties of 
the Protestant colonies, they say, " Nor can we suppress 
our astonishment that a British Parliament should ever 
consent to establish in that country a religion that has 

DELUGED YOUR ISLAND IN BLOOD, and dispersed IMPIETY, 
BIGOTRY, PERSECUTION, MURDER, AND REBELLION through 

every part of the world." So thought the patriots of the 
revolution. 

Under the influence of such convictions, the framers of 
the constitution of North Carolina determined to exclude 
Romanists from office in that state, and inserted an article 
to that effect. The facts as to Judge Gaston I give in the 
words of Dr. Breckenridge, in his able work entitled 
Papism in the United States in the Nineteenth Century. 
After stating that he was one of the most distinguished 
citizens of the state and one of her ablest lawyers, he 
says,— 

" By the constitution of North Carolina, he is expressly 
disqualified to hold the office he occupies, precisely because 
he chooses to be a Catholic. In the thirty-second article it 
is thus written : ' That no person who shall deny the being 

of God, OR THE TRUTH OF THE PROTESTANT RELIGION, Or 

the divine authority either of the Old or New Testaments, 
or who shall hold religious 'principles incompatible with the 
freedom, and safety of the state, shall be capable of holding 
any office, or place of trust or profit, in the civil govern- 
ment within this state.' Now, Mr. Gaston is at this 
moment a judge of the Court of Appeals of North Caro- 
lina. Before he took his seat on the bench, he took an 
oath in some usual form to support the constitution of that 
state. Part of that constitution asserts and assumes the 
truth of the Protestant religion. But Mr. Gaston is an 
avowed and most decided Papist. Now, will he do him- 
self the justice, mankind the favor, and his religion the 
service of explaining this conduct? 



CAUTI0N8 TO AMERICANS. 



123 



" Mr. Gaston has sworn to maintain ' the truth of the 
PEOTESTANT RELIGION he has s\Yorn to maintain a con- 
stitution which disqualifies him the moment he shall 
' deny the truth of the Protestant religion ; ' and yet he is 
confessedly a Papist — a believer in all the necessary 
dogmas, and a member in full exercise of all the privileges, 
of that faith which the creed of Pope Pius lY. pronounces 
to be exclusive not only, but indispensable to salvation — 
that church which declares itself to be, and which all who 
repeat its creed promise and swear to maintain as, the 
^mother and mistress' of all churches, and to use all 
diligence, by all means in their power, to spread all around 
them. In the name of common honesty, how could Judge 
Gaston assent to the creed of Pope Pius lY., which is the au- 
thorized creed of his church, and at the same time assent to 
the provision quoted above from the constitution of North 
Carolina? Can a man swear with a good conscience to 
opposite facts, statements, and opinions ? '' 

After a full discussion of the subject, he comes to this 
conclusion : — 

" If I had acted as Judge Gaston has, my sect would 
have deposed me from the ministry, my congregation 
would have shut my church doors against me, my friends 
would have wept over me as one undone, and the whole 
world would have had but one opinion about it ; and that 
opinion would have been, that I was a degraded man. 
Then why not mete the same measure to Judge Gaston ? 
I will tell you why. It is because Judge Gaston is a Papist ; 
and his creed admits and approves his conduct. And, there- 
fore, let every man that loves God pity and forgive Judge 
Gaston, and frown down his pestiferous superstition, as 
the parent of all vice and the enemy of every virtue." 

The criminal apathy of the press on a point so momen- 
tous he thus explains : — 

" Is the public press already Catholic, or infidel ? Is the 
whole editorial corps converted, subsidized, afraid, or 



124 



THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED. 



totally indifferent ? No ; this is by no means so. If a 
Methodist judge should take a false oath, or a Presbyte- 
rian judge commit a flagrant violation of morality, or an 
Episcopal judge outrage public decency, or a Deistical 
judge be guilty of deliberate perfidy in official affairs, — in 
all these cases the public press would fully respond to the 
public feeling, and the judge would be disgraced, if not 
degraded. Why deal out a different measure to a Catholic 
judge ? I will tell you why. It is because every Catholic 
in the world makes common cause with every other 
Catholic in the world, and with the Pope of Rome, as the 
head of all the world, and with the Catholic church, as the 
mother and mistress of all the churches in the world. 
Virtue is nothing, truth is nothing, religion is nothing, 
country is nothing, liberty is nothing ; the church is all, 
and the pope its head ; and all its true members form one 
universal conspiracy against every good of man and the 
honor of God himself. Printers feel the force, though 
they may deny the reality, of this conspiracy." 

The case of Judge Gaston is fearfully significant. His 
church has solemnly decided that an oath contrary to 
ecclesiastical utility is not binding. He simply believes 
the church, and acts accordingly ; or else, according to^ 
the Jesuits, he swears, not intending to do what he swears. 

And what oath or promise is there that these same 
principles will not dissolve ? No matter who it is, whether 
bishop or layman^ who swears allegiance to a national or 
a state government, his oath does not bind him in any 
case in which the pope or the bishops shall decide that 
ecclesiastical utility requires its violation. 

On the same principles, any Romanist, whether layman 
or ecclesiastic, can profess to be a Protestant, and join any 
Protestant church, for the sake .of acting the more ef- 
fectually to undermine Protestantism and to extend the 
power of the Papacy. There is the best ground to believe 
that this has been done in the English Protestant church 



CAUTIONS TO AMERICANS. 



125 



on a great scale. Why sliould it not be so ? According 
to the supreme authority of the church, and Jesuit morality 
also, it is so far from being wrong that it is highly meri- 
torious. In the same way men or women may assume any 
disguise, and act under any profession, in order to subserve 
the interests of the church. 

On the same ground, a Eomish bishop may in the most 
solemn and public manner proclaim as true and undeniable 
what he knows to be utterly false ; as, for example, in the 
case of a public discussion. 

Thus Bishop Purcell, in his controversy in Cincinnati with 
A. Campbell, denied in the most solemn manner that a 
passage quoted by Campbell from a compend of the morals 
of St. Liguori was ever written by him. He said to the 
audience, " I now pledge myself to show to every man of 
honor in this city that the last allegation read by the 
gentleman, purpiorting to be from the works of Liguori, is 
not to be found in the works of that writer. It is all a 
base fabrication, I will not say of Mr. C, but somebody, 
I will meet this charge with a complete and an overwhelm- 
ing refutation." Much more of the same kind of declama- 
tion he employed, and produced the desired effect for the 
time. But what was the fact ? It was proved, after the 
debate was over and there had been time to hear from 
New York from the author of the compend, that it was in 
the works of Liguori, and was properly translated. It 
was found in the bishop's own copy. This extract, how- 
ever, revealed the fact, that although the church will ex- 
communicate a priest for marrying a wife, yet the council 
of Trent only imposed fines on those priests who kept con- 
cubines ; and Liguori taught that a bishop ought to appro- 
priate these fines /or pious uses / It is not to be wondered 
at that the bishop's ideas of ecclesiastical utility led him 
to feel that it was desirable, at least during the debate, to 
11* 



126 THE PAPAL CONSPmACY EXPOSED. 

break the force of such statements of Liguori, and there- 
fore he indignantly called them a base fabrication. (See 
Debate, pp. 219, 253, and note at the end.) This is the 
same bishop who used to manifest great zeal for the public 
schools of Cincinnati before the people, when at the same 
time he was writing to Europe denunciations of them as 
pernicious and dangerous. That he was so doing became 
manifest by the publication of one or more of his letters 
in Europe, which found their way to this country, and were 
translated and published for the benefit of the good peo- 
ple of Cincinnati. The pope, of course, saw fit to remove 
him, after this exposure, to some other post of honor, and 
no doubt rewarded him for his zeal in behalf of ecclesi- 
astical utility. 

In like manner Pope Pius VL did not hesitate to lie in 
order to remove the odium of the doctrines of the church 
in Great Britain. As quoted by Bishop Kenrick, p. 471 
Primacy, he says, — not ex cathedra and in his own name, 
be it noticed, but through Cardinal Antonelli, — " The see 
of Rome never taught that faith is not to be kept with 
the heterodox ; that an oath to kings separated from the 
Catholic communion can be violated ; that it is lawful for 
the Bishop of Rome to invade their temporal rights and 
dominions." Now, even if the pope had said this ex ca- 
thedra it would be of no force, for it is a mere assertion 
as to historical facts, and he is not held even by Roman- 
ists to be infallible as to such facts, but only as to doc- 
trines and principles of faith ; and it is merely a denial 
of facts as notorious as his own existence. He might as 
well have said that Luther, and Calvin, and the reforma- 
tion never existed as to make the notoriously false state- 
ment above quoted. 

But it was done for the sake of aiding the Romanists 
of Great Britain in their struggles for civil power and 



CAUTIONS TO AMERICANS. 



127 



privileges ; and there is no reason wliy a pope should not 
lie for ecclesiastical utility as well as any other bishop or 
any layman. 

Thus, also, we explain the fact that the deaths of Cal- 
vin, Luther, Zwingle, (Ecolampadius, and Carolstadt were 
deliberately and grossly misrepresented by leading Pa- 
pists. It was done on grounds of ecclesiastical utility, in 
order to convey to their own party the idea that these 
enemies of Popery died as heretics beneath the manifest 
wrath of God. Bishop Stratford has written a large and 
able tract, designed to expose and refute these most atro- 
cious falsehoods. But such men as Cardinal Bellarmine 
the Jesuit, and others concerned in this work of slander, 
were simply carrying out the doctrine of their own order 
as to slander, and of the church as to lying for ecclesias- 
tical utility. 

For the same reason, at Eome the Jesuit teachers of 
Raffaele Ciocci, as he informs us, constantly told him, 
when a youth, " that the Protestants did not worship 
Christ ; that they slaughtered each other daily like fero- 
cious beasts ; that they put the Roman Catholics to death ; 
that they attended to no civil restrictions, but continually 
lived in a state of anarchy. These misrepresentations, 
these diabolical assertions, were received by me as in- 
controvertible truths." (See his Narrative, p. 13.) 

Also in a monastery the monks suppressed his letters to 
his parents, and theirs to him, and forged a correspond- 
ence on both sides, in order to induce him to sign a 
deed giving all his property to the monastery. — Narra- 
tive, pp. 39-46. 

, On the same principles, all nuns that escape from con- 
vents are declared insane, and any kind of falsehood is 
resorted to to entrap and abduct those who forsake their 
faith. The case of Hannah Corcoran, of Charlestown, 



128 THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED. 

Massachusetts, will illustrate this statement. She was 
carried off for choosing to become a Protestant. Neither 
priests nor relations knew where she was ; but when it be- 
came evident that an indignant community would not hold 
them guiltless she was soon found and restored. And 
through all the case there was no scruple to use false- 
hood to any extent. 

On the same principles, promises are freely made not to 
interfere with the religious principles of the children of 
Protestants in their schools, which are of course violated 
without scruple ; and children have even been taught to 
deceive their parents, in order to avoid their opposition or 
censure. 

We shall never understand such facts until we fully 
comprehend their doctrines as to lying as I have ex- 
plained them. Their system so debases and corrupts 
their moral sense that they regard the most atrocious 
lying for " ecclesiastical utility " as not merely no sin, but 
a positive merit. 

At the time of the Gunpowder Plot in England, de- 
signed to blow up and destroy the king and House of 
Lords and Commons, Catesby, one of the conspirators, 
consulted Father Garnet, the superior of the Jesuits, 
whether " it were lawful to promote the good of the Ro- 
man cause by destroying some innocent among many 
guilty." Garnet answered, "If the advantage of the 
Catholic cause were greater by destroying some innocent 
with many guilty, it was certainly lawful to kill and de- 
stroy them all." 

As to the propriety of blowing up the Protestants, it 
seems, there could be no doubt. The only question was, 
Was it right to blow up a few Romanists also who would 
be present? His reply we have seen. Ecclesiastical util- 
ity outweighed all else. 



CAUTIONS TO AMERICANS. 



129 



When arrested and tried for treason as an accomplice 
in the plot, he alleged that he received the knowledge of 
the plot in confession, and therefore could not lawfully 
reveal it. It was proved, however, that he did not re- 
ceive the knowledge of it in confession. 

He also solemnly declared on his priesthood that he 
had had no correspondence with Greenwell (a conspira- 
tor) since they had met at Caughton. Yet at this very 
time the judges had in their hands letters of his which he 
had written to Greenwell since that time. On seeing the 
letters he confessed the fact, but, when censured, defended 
his perjury on the principles of his order, as right. He 
died, moreover, with another lie in his mouth, and secretly 
wrote to his friends to lie for him after his death. In all 
this he was but following the rule of ecclesiastical utility 
and the Jesuit code of morals, and was esteemed in other 
respects as a learned, amiable, and eminent man. But his 
system brought him to the death of a perjured traitor. 

But why should I continue the painful work of illustra- 
tion and proof? Call to mind the holy coat of Treves ; 
call to mind the pretended miracles of modern times ; call' 
to mind the deceptions as to relics and hallowed medals, 
with power to avert or cure diseases. 

The ecclesiastics who do these things are not ignorant 
men. They know better. They delude and defraud the 
people on principle and systematically. Hardly can we 
call such frauds pious frauds. They better merit the name 
of barefaced swindling. And yet even Romish bishops do 
not hesitate to engage in such proceedings, and to use all 
their power to deceive and gull the simple and ignorant 
masses, who look up to them for instruction as to the ora- 
cles of God. 

Not only, then, do the Romish ecclesiastics adopt the 
principle, that for their own interests they may dissolve 



130 



THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED. 



the bonds of right and honesty to those without, but, by 
the use of fraud and delusion towards their own ignorant 
populace for purposes of power or gain, they place their 
own interests above theirs also, and thus above those of 
the whole human race. 

We shall more clearly see the truth of this statement 
when we have contemplated the fact, that from the very 
outset the foundations of their power have been laid in 
forgery and fraud. 

Nothing gives such an idea of the patience of God as 
the thought that he has so long endured such a system 
and such men. 



PART II. 

ROMANISM THE ENEMY OF MANKIND. 



CHAPTER I. 

THE CASE STATED. — PHINCIPLES OF JUDGMENT. 

A CORPORATION which arrogates to itself so exclusively 
the favor of God ; which regards all Protestants as pa- 
gans ; which, for the crime of rejecting its claims, disfran- 
chises them, and has shed the blood of millions, — ought at 
least to have some peculiar and preeminent merits of its 
own. It ought, in theory, to tend to good ; and, after a 
trial of more than ten centuries, it ought to have left evi- 
dence of the reality and power of that tendency in the 
records of history. 

As this corporation is constantly thrusting itself on the 
attention of this nation as the only hope of humanity, and 
avows its purpose, as soon as it has power, to expel and 
to exterminate Protestantism, it will not be amiss if we 
subject it to a rigid and thorough scrutiny.. 

The principles of such a scrutiny are simple and ob- 
vious. We are to consider, not the pretences of its par ti- 

(131) 



132 



THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED. 



sans, but its internal structure, its mode of operation, its 
tendencies, and its results. If a company of inquisitors 
were to introduce into this city various instruments of 
torture such as the fertile genius of the Romish corpora- 
tion has so abundantly devised, and carry them to a large 
i)uilding recently erected, calling them, at the same time, 
musical instruments, it is probable that such a name would 
exert but little influence in satisfying the mind of the com- 
munity of the benevolent nature of their designs, in erect- 
ing the building and introducing the instruments. They 
would consider their structure, their mode of operation, 
their tendencies, and natural results. They would, after 
considering these points, probably conclude that they were 
instruments of torture, and that the only music that would 
ever be produced by them would be that of groans and 
shrieks of agony. 

So it should be little to us that the Romish corporation 
calls itself a church, and professes to aim at promoting 
the glory of God and the welfare of man. In a case of 
so much moment, we should not be deceived by names and 
pretences. We ought thoroughly to examine the struc- 
ture of the system itself, notice its tendencies, and inquire 
what it has in fact done during its long history. 

To prevent all misunderstanding, however, it is neces- 
sary at this point to remark that we are to view the sys- 
tem of Romanism in reference to those things which it has 
in distinction from and in opposition to Protestantism, 
laying out of the account any doctrines that it has in com- 
mon with Protestantism. 

This is but equitable ; for any good which may result 
from such doctrines as it has in common with Protestant- 
ism certainly ought not to be set down to its credit as 
Romanism ; for it exists, not on account of the peculiar- 
ities of Rom-anism, but in spite of them. 



THE CASE STATED. — PRINCIPLES OF JUDGMENT. 133 

Thus, though Romanism avows a belief of the beiug of 
a Gocl, and receives the Bible as his word, and has in its 
doctrinal system many elements of truth which may be so 
arranged as to meet the v/ants of holy minds, yet this is 
nothing to its credit as Romanism ; for the doctrine con- 
cerning God, and the Bible, and the same elements of truth 
are found without that system among the Protestants, and 
operate there with much greater energy, and with less to 
counteract their power. 

Indeed, the power of Romanism to do evil is augment- 
ed by the fact that it has in it so much truth. This truth 
is, if we may so say, in a state of captivity to the Romish 
hierarchy, and is used by them to gain their own ends. 
They use it to give authority to their system. 

By means of it they fit up some rooms in the great Ba- 
bel in which holy men can dwell and worship God, though 
in captivity. Meantime the existence of such good men 
under the system is used to give it influence. They are 
as stool pigeons to draw others into the snare. 

It is a part of the policy of the system to introduce all 
manner of inconsistent or contradictory views for va- 
rious minds. Hence, though it contains many of the fun- 
damental doctrines of Protestantism for the pious, yet 
none the less does it introduce for other classes other doc- 
trines which neutralize or contradict them. And, if the 
contradictions are pointed out, it covers them up by the 
plea of mystery. 

But, passing from what it has in common with Protes- 
tantism, let us consider what is peculiarly its own. 

Let us, then, look at the system, stripping off its sancti- 
monious phraseology, and testing it by an impartial con- 
sideration of its tendencies and results. 
12 



CHAPTER II. 



POPERY A RELIGION, A TRADING CORPORATION, AND A 
GOVERNMENT. 

If we examine carefully the system of Romanism, in its 
theory and in its practice, we shall discover a curious 
triple combination, composed of a religion, a trading cor- 
poration, and a government. 

POPERY A RELIGION. 

The great idea of the corporation as a religious body 
is, that it has an absolute and exclusive authority to con- 
fer the grace of God, as displayed in the pardon of sin 
and the gift of eternal life. This grace it dispenses 
through certain agents, who alone are empowered to con- 
fer it and whose grace alone is genuine. All other pre- 
tended grace is spurious and counterfeit. 

Again : this grace is communicated through various 
forms, or processes, called sacraments, and through the 
profession of a certain creed, and through confession to 
one of their agents, called a priest, who has full power 
from God, through them, to forgive sins, and to impose 
penances as the condition. 

So far the system has the aspect of a religion. If, now, 
all this were done freely, and not as a means of obtaining 

(134) 



POPERY A RELIGION, A TRADING CORPORATION, ETC. 135 

money, the aspect of a trading company would not be 
seen. But such is not the fact. 



POPERY A TRADING CORPORATION. 

In all ages this system has been used as a means of ac- 
cumulating immense sums of money in return for the grace 
of God, of which it has the entire monopoly. This grace 
reaches, not merely to this life, but to an indefinite period 
beyond this life, in which the soul is neither in heaven nor 
in hell, but somewhere between, in a place of torment 
called purgatory. Besides the common grace of God, 
this corporation has laid up an inexhaustible store of the 
merits of all saints beyond what was needed for their 
own salvation ; and of these merits, also, they have the 
entire monopoly. Thus, by masses, and the application of 
these merits, and by prayers for the dead, they can deliver 
souls from purgatory ; and for a reasonable compensation 
they are always ready to do it. This gives them great 
power at sick beds, and over the wills of dying men and 
women, and over the purses of living relatives and friends. 
They have, also, various other sources of profit from the 
living, in the form of indulgences for sin ; scapularies, as 
defences against all evils ; masses of every variety and 
for every purpose ; dispensations from fasts ; removals of 
impediments to marriage ; miraculous medals ; various de- 
fences against the devil ; grace through the images or rel- 
ics of patron saints, especially on their annual festivals ; 
and numerous other similar devices. It will be found that 
all the peculiar doctrines and practices of Popery have a 
wonderful adaptation to produce immense pecuniary profit. 
Thus, at the anniversaries of saints, all who visit their 
shrines are not to expect grace unless they deposit offer- 



136 



THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED. 



ings. In like manner, the grace of relics is most abundant 
towards the most liberal contributors. One recent in- 
stance will cast light on this matter. The celebrated 
prelate, Arnold of Treves, and his priests, are said to have 
received one hundred thousand dollars in six months from 
offerings made in order to obtain a portion of the grace 
stored up in the holy coat. Eighty thousand medals of 
the Virgin, full of the same grace, were also sold, and also 
ribbons, bits of cloth, cotton, and silk which had touched 
the holy coat, and thus derived a portion of its salutary 
power. All the old rags in the neighborhood of Treves 
were thus sold for their weight in gold. The total value 
of this particular adventure is estimated at three hundred 
thousand dollars. 

It is to be understood that the Eomish corporation has 
the monopoly of this department of gracious influence also, 
and that no bones, hair, skulls, chairs, coats, ribbons, medals, 
cloth, cotton, and silk are genuine except those which 
come from their manufactory. I have mentioned other 
important departments of traffic equally profitable, or 
even more so. 

Here, then, opens upon us the view of an immense com- 
merce carried on for ages, the statistics of which have 
never yet been reported. But it is well known that, at the 
time of the reformation, this corporation and their agents 
had gained possession of half, and sometimes of three 
quarters, of the property of the various states of Europe. 
Nor is there any question that, if the details were -known, 
it would be found that the commerce of Tyre, of Carthage, 
of Venice, of the Hanse Towns, of the East India Compa- 
ny, and of all other trading companies whatever has been 
quite thrown into the shade by the traffic of this great 
corporation. Hence in prophecy its downfall is repre- 
sented under the symbol of the ruin of an immense com- 
mercial city. 



PaPERY A RELIGION, A TRADING CORPORATION, ETC. 137 



POPERY A GOVERNMENT. 

Viewing this corporation as a government, the aspect 
of things is no less impressive. The head of the corpora- 
tion is both a spiritual and a temporal ruler. He claims 
to be monarcli of all monarchs. His senate of cardinals 
and electors are princes. His bishops also are lords each 
in his diocese, but are still his vassals, bound to him by a 
feudal oath. To him also are bound the rulers of the 
Jesuits and of the various orders of monks and nuns, who 
are an all-pervading soldiery, sworn to do his will. To 
the bishops also are subjected the secular priests, and to 
them are subjected the people. Thus the whole system is 
one compact and all-pervading government, the rule of 
which is absolute obedience to the central power and its 
agents in regular subordination. It is an immense army 
under military discipline. 

12* 



CHAPTER III. 



OPERATION AND EFFECTS OF THE SYSTEM. 

Let us now study tlie operation of this corporation on 
the mind. And, first of all, it is evident that in religious 
matters it puts itself in God's place. God could, no doubt, 
if he pleased, reveal himself and impart grace to individ- 
uals out of this corporation ; but he will not. He has de- 
termined not to act except through this visible corpora- 
tion. No one can have any thing to do with him but 
through them. All the world outside of them is empty 
of divine grace. There is no sunshine there. All is dark 
as hell ; all is under the despotism of the devil. God 
comes to man only as he has stored up in them his grace. 
Of that grace they have inexhaustible quantities. They, 
and they only, are the great head quarters of supply. 

Again : as they are infallible, and as God has subjected 
all men to them and put all grace into their hands, all 
men are bound to be their subjects and also their cus- 
tomers. To believe any others, or obey any others, or 
buy the grace of God of any others, is treason. 

Again : as they are infallible, so they aim, as far as 
possible, to be omniscient and omnipresent. This they 
effect by their agents who hear confessions. To them 
every act, motive, feeling, thought, and plan must be dis- 
closed, or no pardon of sins can be obtained ; for they 

(138) 



OPERATIOX AND EFFECTS OP THE SYSTEM. 139 

cannot judge of sins unless they know all the circum- 
stances of alleviation or aggravation. 

Again : not only are the corporation to be regarded as 
infallible, but also their agents to whom confession is 
made are to be treated as infallible ; for, practically, the 
people are not allowed to know what the corporation or 
God teaches or demands by private judgment, but solely 
through the priests. It comes to this, then, in practice, 
that to each one his or her priest is as God, and hears 
confessions and absolves as God ; and so their councils and 
doctors teach. Each priest, then, is virtually an exten- 
sion of the great divine, infallible, central corporation. 
Thus the great central corporation branches out into 
agencies and sub-agencies all over the world, through 
which it teaches, governs, and trades. 

It thus comes to pass that though theoretically the 
priest is not infallible, but only the great corporation, so 
that they are not responsible for his statements, yet in 
practice it is the priest who alone knows what the church, 
who is infallible and as God, teaches, and he therefore is 
practically infallible and as God ; and it is practical here- 
sy or treason, as a general fact, not so to regard him. 



GKAND PECULIARITY. 

We now come to a grand peculiarity of the system, 
upon which its working power entirely depends. To the 
masses it materializes and perverts all ideas of heaven 
and hell ; it gives false and fanatical conceptions of God 
as regarding this corporation more than real and genuine 
holiness ; it fills the mind with superstitious fears, and 
then concentrates all these forces, from the first dawn of 



140 



THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED. 



reason, to break down all energy or courage to think or 
to reason from the Bible or from any other source against 
their authority or decisions. Even to doubt is heresy ; it 
is infidelity. It thus aims by the whole power of educa- 
tion thorougiily to cut the sinews of reason and of 'reason- 
ing, and to establish a habit of blind and implicit belief. 
In this they have most incredible success. 

Few have ever adequately considered the wide range 
of this operation. "We know God as he is by love. Ev- 
ery one that loveth is born of God and knoweth God. 
The elements of heaven are found in the perfection of 
love and of communion with God. 

But the miseries of hell are but the opposite of the joys 
of heaven ; they are the full development of malignant 
passions and a sense of the just displeasure of God. 
There is no need of literal penal fires ; nor does the Bible 
teach their existence. 

But the moment that God is conceived of as the partial 
God of a corporation for the most part grossly immoral, 
and holy men out of that church are consigned to literal 
fire, no true ideas of God, heaven, or hell remain. He is 
conceived of as an infinite, almighty, malignant demon. 
Malignity and revenge are sanctified as zeal for him. Ar- 
bitrary and fanatical terrors are multiplied. They pen- 
etrate the youthful toind and freeze it with horror at the 
thought of doubting the word of a corporation outside 
of which he has consigned all to perdition. From the 
effects of such training few ever recover. 

Such is the corporation and such its mode of opera- 
tion. 

Let us next consider its tendencies and effects. 
As Protestants, we are of course regarded as heretics. 
Let us, then, first consider its aspects towards us. 



OPERATION AND EFFECTS OF THE SYSTEM. 



141 



TREATMENT OF HERETICS. 

First, then, it tends to make heresy the greatest of all 
crimes, and especially the heresy of doubting or denying 
the divine authority and the infallibility of the corpora- 
tion. 

The reason of this is plain. In the belief of this divine 
authority and infallibility lies the whole working power 
of the system in all its aspects — religious, pecuniary, and 
political. It is the essential, all-pervading element of its 
vitality. Therefore it is only the natural instinct of self- 
defence to consider the act of calling in question its di- 
vine authority or infallibility the greatest of crimes. To 
believe and act against its authority, its decisions, and its 
will, is the great, the only, unpardonable sin. It is called 
HERESY in the phraseology of theologians. Its real and 
more intelligible name is, or ought to be, treason ; for this 
is what they mean by it. It is resistance to their author- 
ity, their power, their will, their lav^. Even if you are 
not actually promulgating error, yet, if you claim the 
right to judge of them or of their decisions by the Bible 
or by reason, you are guilty of the very essence of trea- 
son. It was for this, and this alone, that they burned 
John Huss. 

Again : on their premises, the destruction of heretics is 
the natural and consistent devek>pment of the system. 
For those who are not infallible to destroy dissentients is 
illogical and inconsistent. But if such a corporation is a 
true and genuine theocracy, and knows it, and is infallible 
in all its decisions, — if they are, in fact, God upon earth, 
— then they regard themselves as standing on genuine Old 
Testament ground, and,4n slaughtering heretics, as simply 
imitating Elijah in his slaughter of the priests of Baal, 



142 



THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED. 



or Joshua in his slaughter of the idolatrous Cauaanites at 
the command of God. 

So, indeed, those who have been brought up thoroughly 
to believe the system have always looked at the matter. 
Believing this corporation to be a true theocracy, involv- 
ing air the interests of God and of man on earth, rebel- 
lion against it and efforts to destroy its authority they 
have regarded as the greatest of crimes. Hence we can 
understand why, though the Spaniards pity other criminals 
when executed, they exult and manifest peculiar joy at the 
burning of heretics ; which is well known to be the fact. 
Hence, also, the religious services on the occasion of the 
massacre of St. Bartholomew were no more than the 
logical results of the system. 

Beyond all doubt this is the only real logical, consistent 
Roman Catholic view. On no other ground can the deeds 
of that system be defended ; and there is now, as we have 
seen, a general tendency to take this ground and avow its 
consequences, and to declare that as soon as they gain the 
power they shall carry out these principles again. 

On this ground Mr. Brownson denies that the Romish 
church ever has persecuted : she has but exercised just 
authority in punishing those who were guilty of treason. 



TREATMENT OF THE BIBLE AND OF HISTORY. 

, But again : it follows that if in fact this corporation has 
no basis in the Bible, nor in history, but is founded on im- 
posture and forgery, it of course must create in the man- 
agers of the corporation a peculiar and an intense hatred 
of the Bible and of history. Viewed either as a religion, 
a trading corporation, or a government, it would exert 
immense power to avert the disclosures of God's word 



OPERATION AND EFFECTS OF THE SYSTEM. 143 

and of the great Tolume of history. How much moro 
\Yhen the interests of three such systems combined in one 
are in peril! 

It is natural that the inhabitants of an immense palace 
should regard with horror and indignation all efforts to 
cast fire into it and consume it. Yet the Bible and his- 
~ tory are merely the fire of God. Let them be fully de- 
veloped, and this whole fabric is consumed. Of course 
the most intense energies of this whole mighty corpora- 
tion will be put forth to avert these results. 

The doctrine of pious frauds, at its first development, 
was feeble and its aspect plausible ; but out of it grew 
the whole Papal system. And now, at last, all kinds of 
fraud, pious and impious, are needed in its defence, and 
must be and will be employed with the most intense en- 
ergy. We need not wonder that the system sanctions 
them. It could not exist a day without them. 



EFFECTS ON LIBERTY. 

Once more : this system is, of necessity, one immense 
conspiracy, designed to destroy the very roots of all intel- 
lectual, civil, and religious liberty. This is essential in 
order to sustain it. This is involved in the decision of 
the church, " that he who only doubts concerning the faith 
is to be reputed an infidel." This maxim, applied from 
the first development of the intellectual powers of a child, 
and by every process of parental, priestly, and ecclesias- 
tical influence, and by every terror that superstition can 
summon up, paralyzes and cripples the minds of thorough- 
ly educated Eomanists to an extent of which it is hard to 
conceive. This principle pervades the system with intense 



144 



THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED. 



power, and especially all Romish educational processes., 
A habit of free and independent thought is fatal to their 
church. Hence the hatred of the ecclesiastics of Rome 
against our system of free schools, our histories, and our' 
Bibles. If she would maintain herself she must have a 
system of education entirely under her control, so that she 
may still, as heretofore, cripple and paralyze the mind 
from its first to its last educational processes. This is 
what she means to have. 

How can a community thus educated be free? Can 
any outward forms of government give freedom to a na- 
tion the minds of whose children are thus paralyzed and 
crippled from the dawn of life ? This effect of Romanism 
was seen and lamented in France at the time of the last 
revolution. One of her leading statesmen declared that 
she could not follow the example of America in sustain- 
ing popular institutions, and assign o;l the influence of 
Papal edaccilion as the reason. 

On this ground Pierce Connelly, once a Romish priest, 
eloquently says, in his letter to Lord ShrewRbr.ry assign- 
ing his reasons for abjuring allegiance to the see of 
Rome, — 

" It is not civil liberty that is the first want of the con- 
tinent of Europe or of the Spanish republics of America. 
The want is, the education necessary for men to be free, 
the perception of what is liberty ; the want is, emanci- 
pation FROM A PSEUDO-DIVINE JURISDICTION UPON EARTH. 

This is the want that makes the darkness of their future, 
as of their present and their past. Rome weighs upon 
her victims like an eternal nightmare. Who was more 
impatient of the oppression than Venice ? But was her 
proudest patrician ever free ? Nay, is Prussia, reduced to 
a semi-Papal province by concordat, — is Prussia or any 
great kingdom oT the continent free ? " 



OPERATION AND EFFECTS OF THE SYSTEM. 145 



EFFECTS ON NATIONAL PROSPERITY. 

Once more : the immense extortions of the system, as 
well as its system of holidays, absorbing in idleness a 
large portion of the time of the laboring classes, have 
tended in all ages, and still tend, to impoverish the na- 
tions over which it holds sway. It is notorious that 
kings and people in the most Catholic ages have groaned 
most bitterly by reason of its various extortions, and have 
been by them at last aroused to resistance. Such feelings 
indeed, in part, caused the reformation. Hence the mis- 
erable condition of Italy, and especially of the population 
of the Papal States. 

In our own country, one of the priests has bitterly cursed 
savings banks. The reason is plain. The church prefers 
to extort the savings of the poor laborers of this country 
for her own purposes rather than to have them deposited 
for their earners in savings banks. So, also, she is deter- 
mined to own all their church property. Moreover, be= 
cause the system is hostile to all kinds of Rental liberty, 
it is of necessity hostile to all inventive power, and to all 
free development of the laws of nature and of society, 
and to all social progress. This is self-evident ; for all 
truth belongs to one great system ; and true freedom to in- 
vestigate one part leads to true freedom to investigate 
another. The only safe course is to arrest the process, 
as when the Inquisition compelled Galileo to recant the 
true theory of the motion of the earth. 

Under such influences true social progress is impossible. 
There will be no development of thrift, industry, energy, 
enterprise, invention, even as we see to be the case in all 
parts of Roman Catholic Ireland. 

The historian Macaulay is disposed, even to an excess, 
13 



146 



THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED. 



to give all the credit that he can to Rome before the ref- 
ormation. His judgment, therefore, is the more impartial 
as to what she is now. Speaking of the time since the ref- 
ormation, he says, — 

" To stunt the growth of the human mind has been her 
chief object. Throughout Christendom, whatever advance 
has been made in knowledge, in freedom, in wealth, and in 
the arts of life, has been made in spite of her, and has every 
where been in inverse proportion to her power. The love- 
liest and most fertile provinces of Europe have, under her 
rule, been sunk in poverty, in political servitude, and in 
intellectual torpor ; while Protestant countries, once pro- 
verbial' for sterility and barbarism, have been turned, by 
skill and industry, into gardens, and can boast of a long 
list of heroes and statesmen, philosophers and poets. 
Whoever, knowing what Italy and Scotland naturally are, 
and what, four hundred years ago, they actually were, 
shall now compare the country round Rome with the coun- 
try round Edinburgh, will be able to form some judgment 
as to the tendency of Papal domination. The descent of 
Spain, once the first among monarchies, to the lowest 
depths of degradation, the elevation of Holland, in spite 
of many natural disadvantages, to a position such as no 
commonwealth so small has ever reached, teach the same 
lesson. Whoever passes, in Germany, from a Roman 
Catholic to a Protestant principality, in Switzerland from 
a Roman Catholic to a Protestant canton, in Ireland from 
a Roman Catholic to a Protestant county, finds that he has 
passed from a lower to a higher grade of civilization. On 
the other side of the Atlantic the same law prevails. The 
Protestants of the United States have left far behind them 
the Roman Catholics of Mexico, Peru, and Brazil. The 
Roman Catholics of Lower Canada remain inert ; while 
the whole continent round them is in a ferment with Prot- 
estant activity and enterprise." 



OPERATION AND EFFECTS OF THE SYSTEM. 147 



ROME THE ENEMY OF MAN. 

From this general survey it is obvious that the Romish 
church is the enemy of man in all aspects — religious, po- 
litical, and social. Nor vs^ould it seem possible to add 
any thing to the magnitude and enormity of her guilt. 
And yet, thus far, we have hardly begun to penetrate the 
depths of her malignant influence. It is not until we have 
understood the moral influence of her system upon her 
priesthood, and through them upon all departments of re- 
ligion and of social life, that we can thoroughly under- 
stand the blasting and desolating power of Romanism. 

I refer in particular to the influence of the celibacy of 
the clergy, and of the confessional in connection with it. 
Rome here has one advantage over Protestants. The 
facts of her history in these respects are so outrageous 
that they cannot, with any regard to decency, be fully 
stated. Moreover they are so atrocious that, until we 
see the law and the philosophy of their origin, they seem 
incredible. In addition, it is painful to contemplate such 
disgusting enormities and crimes. 

I shall not try to deprive Romanism of her advantages 
of this sort. I shall not pollute the public mind by a full 
disclosure of the truth with respect to her abominations. 
These are the things of which an apostle says it is a shame 
even to speak. 

Nevertheless, fidelity to God, and to our country, and 
to humanity forbids that this topic be passed over. It is 
proper, at least, to state general principles and some 
leading facts. 



CHAPTER lY. 



THE CELIBACY OF THE CLERGY. 

It is plain that to administer a system like Romanism 
requires a 'very peculiar class of men, and an intense 
power of combination, and concentration, and military 
discipline. 

Men are needed bound to the pope more powerfully 
than to any local community ; men who will not shrink 
from any needed hypocrisy, falsehood, deception, or per- 
fidy ; men who will be hardened and fanatical enough to 
preside over and conduct the e?:tremest kinds of torture 
with a firmness of nerve which no pity can affect, and no 
weakness turn back from the infliction of torment upon 
torment. 

In short, men are needed habituated to speak lies, in hy- 
pocrisy, and having consciences seared as with a hot iron 
— men who are able, with brazen face, to claim all manner 
of sanctity whilst performing all kinds of diabolical deeds. 
Men are needed, fanatical, degraded, cruel, immitigable, 
and unprincipled, to carry out such a system. 

To produce concentration, celibacy is used. It cuts off 
the clergy from all ties of family or home, and leaves them 
to the full power of the great centre at Rome. 

To fix the despotism on the people, the confessional is 
used ; and by both of these together the priest is de- 
graded, polluted, and defiled, and at the same time ren- 

(148) 



THE CELIBACY OF THE CLERGY. 



149 



dered a hardened and cruel hypocrite and villain, fit for 
any deed of infamy which the system demands. I do not 
mean to include every priest in this statement, but only to 
develop the general law and tendency of the system. 

If we would thoroughly understand the full malignity, 
the diabolical power, and intensity of the all-pervading 
poison of Romanism, let the full import of this statement 
be thoroughly understood. It is needless to make any 
remarks on the importance of the clerical body under any 
form of Christianity. They are the administrators of the 
whole system ; they are diffused throughout the commu- 
nity ; they act upon every interest of life. The family, 
the school, the church are constantly under their influence. 
In the sacred solemnities of marriage they officiate ; in the 
joys of parents over a newborn child they sympathize ; in 
the hour of sickness, by the bed of death, they are present 
to administer spiritual instruction ; and in the hour of af- 
fliction and bereavement it is theirs to ofi'er the consola- 
tions of the gospel. As the blood circulates through the 
whole body, so does their influence penetrate and pervade 
every part of the body politic. 

What, then, can be more evident than that whatever 
corrupts and degrades the clergy extends its malign in- 
fluence throughout the whole community ? Whatever sanc- 
tifies and elevates them, will diffuse with equal power 
blessings of every kind. 

It is, then, enough to condemn Romanism to utter det- 
estation, as the enemy of both God and man, that it is a 
system framed with satanic skill and power to corrupt and 
to debase the clergy, and render them ineffably vile, and 
hardened, and malignant. 

If to any this language shall seem unwarrantably strong, 
let such consider the two following facts : — 

By usurped authority, it undertakes to suspend, in all its 
13* 



150 



THE PAPAL CONSPIEACY EXPOSED. 



clergy, the action of a great law of nature, ordained by 
God for the welfare of man — a law, too, which, from the 
very nature of the case, acts with greater and more con- 
stant power than any other that can be named. Love is 
strong as death — mightier than the grave. The coals 
thereof are coals of fire, that hath a most vehement flame. 
Many waters cannot quench love ; neither can the floods 
drown it. If a man would give all the substance of his 
house for love, it would be utterly contemned. 

It is not without reason that God made man capable of 
this powerful affection. The family is a little model of 
the universal system under God and the church ; and the 
love on which it is based is an emblem of the highest love 
of the universe — even that which exists between God 
and the redeemed. 

Though God has thus associated this love with all that 
is holy ; though he has pronounced marriage honorable in 
all, and the bed undefiled ; though he has clearly intimated 
his will that the clergy should have wives and rule their 
, families well, — yet the corporation of Rome dares to stig- 
matize as unholy what God has thus honored, and has 
prohibited marriage to all her clergy, from the highest to 
the lowest, on the ground that thus they can attain a 
higher degree of sanctity. This is the first great fact to 
be considered. 

THE CONFESSIONAL. 

The second great fact is this — that these unhappy men,- 
thus condemned through life to contend with those pow- 
erful impulses which God has implanted in their breasts, 
are not allowed to retire from temptation and call off 
their minds from forbidden thoughts, but are deliberately, 
remorselessly, and constantly thrust into the very centre 



THE CELIBACy OF THE CLERGY. 



151 



of the fiery furnace of temptation. This is done by requir- 
ing them to hear the confessions of all their flock, in which, 
of course, are included those of females of all ages, and on 
all the points that are involved in a thorough confession. 
Any one who knows what this Implies will not need to 
hear any thing more. On topics upon which in common 
life no refined person pretends to speak, they are required 
by their theological teachers and text books to make the 
most minute examinations as to the thoughts, imagina- 
tions, desires, and acts of every female who comes to the 
confessional. Not one Protestant in a thousand has any 
idea what questions are, proposed in the schedules of ex- 
amination set forth in their most authoritative text books. 
Decency forbids their utterance. 

Now, with regard to this arrangement, it may be truly 
said that satanic ingenuity could not devise a system 
better adapted to corrupt and debase the clerical body as 
a mass. It is no more certain that water will run down 
hill than it is that they will not resist the temptations to 
which they are exposed. They will be corrupted and 
will become corrupters. 

And yet they are bound to profess and to claim for 
themselves and for their church great and exclusive holi- 
ness. The Protestant clergy, who are blessed of God in 
lawful marriage, they are bound to denounce as unclean. 
At the same time they are distinctly conscious that the 
only diiference in the case is, that against solemn vows, 
and without the blessing of God, and as seducers and cor- 
rupters, they seek for and obtain that which the others 
enjoy according to the divine and hallowed ordinance of 
God. 

Licentiousness always hardens and degrades the charac- 
ter in any circumstances ; but in circumstances like these, 
how unspeakably much more ! He who can carry on the 



152 



THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED. 



lying involved in such a course is trained for any and 
all other lying. He who is debased and hardened by 
such a process is fitted for any and all other atrocious 
deeds. That such is the result of the system, there is, 
alas ! evidence beyond the power of full utterance. Some 
of it, however, shall be presented. 



VAST SOCIAL EVILS. 

But, before presenting this evidence, we need to take 
another view of the case in order to understand the full 
extent of the evil. We need to remember that the celi- 
bacy of the clergy is founded on the heathenish notion 
which early corrupted the Christian church — that the 
material system which God has created in so much wis- 
dom and benevolence is malignant in its tendencies, and 
is the chief, if not the only, cause of sin. Of course, to 
be connected with a material body is, on these principles, 
a great calamity and the chief source of depravity ; and 
the great idea in the cultivation of holiness is to mortify 
the body and refuse to indulge its appetites. 

In particular, even the well-regulated gratification of 
that most honorable and powerful affection upon which 
God designed the marriage union and the family state to 
rest is dishonored and degraded, as utterly inconsistent 
with the highest attainments in holiness. Whoever would 
become eminently holy, whether man or woman, must first 
of all abjure marriage and take the vow of perpetual 
celibacy and chastity. 

Thus, at the very outset, an all-pervading injury is in- 
flicted on the great mass of mankind, who must and will 
live in the married state, by consigning them to a state 
of necessary uncleanness and relative moral degradation. 



THE CELIBACY OF THE CLERGY. 



163 



None of them can ever become eminently holy. That 
blessed eminence is reserved for unmarried priests and 
nuns. 

No greater calamity can befall a community than 
to have their fundamental ideas of true religion thus 
darkened and confused. It lays the foundation for their 
utter delusion in their religious experience as a whole, for 
a low standard of morals, and for their subjugation to a 
system which excludes the intelligent action of the mind 
in view of truth, and substitutes for it confession to a priest, 
and penances, and fasts, and sacraments, whose efficacy de- 
pends solely upon the priesthood. As thus all just ideas 
of religion as a rational and sanctified state of the affec- 
tions and will, acting itself out in a. holy life, are exploded, 
we need not w^onder that in place of it comes a religion 
of heartless works, and forms, and shows, and imaginative 
excitements. - 

Holiness no longer comes through a knowledge of God 
and his law, producing a true sense of sin and leading to 
repentance and faith in Christ ; it comes through a cer- 
tain mysterious grace, through baptism, the Lord's sapper, 
and other sacraments, of which the clergy have the entire 
monopoly ; and, as there is no discriminating standard 
of holiness, all kinds of sympathetic and imaginative ex- 
citements are mistaken for it. The natural affections, the 
excitement of music, and pictures, and images, — all is 
religion. 

Thus the false principles from which the celibacy of the 
clergy originates, like a malignant poison, pervade the 
whole system, and blast and destroy true religion at its 
very roots, and introduce in its place a system of blind 
delusion and of bondage. 

Meantime the end at which the system professes to aim, 
— the actual chastity of the clergy, — in the great ma- 
jority of cases is not gained. 



154 



THE PAPiL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED. 



It is folly to suppose that God will interpose by special 
grace to prevent a system based on a fundamental vio- 
lation of Ms great laws from working out its natural 
results. In fact he has not interposed ; and history testi- 
fies in all ages, and by an inconceivable amount of evi- 
dence, that it has -wrought out its legitimate results, 
especially in the deep corruption and fatal degradation of 
the clergy, and, through them, of the community. 

Well has the word of God stigmatized this whole theory 
as a " doctrine of devils," introduced by the great apos- 
tasy. Like an all-pervading pestilence, it smites with 
fatal malignity all the dearest interests of society ; for 
it not only thus debases the clergy, but also consigns to 
necessary degradation and bondage all the masses of 
society, confusing and confounding all ideas of the very 
nature of holiness itself. 

Overlooking the fundamental work of eradicating the 
great roots of sin, — selfishness, pride, envy, and ambition, 
— and thus leaving the most malignant passions to reign in 
the heart, it makes holiness in its highest forms to consist 
in a vain and fruitless conflict with those appetites which 
God has implanted in man's nature, which can never be 
overcome or exterminated, and the gratification of which 
within well-defined limits is always innocent. 



CHAPTER V. 



REASONS FOR A THOROUGH CONSIDERATION OF THIS 
PART OF THE SUBJECT. 

There are three reasons why tins part of the system 
should be wisely and thoroughly considered. First : be- 
cause the Romish corporation, claiming to be the only holy 
and divinely authorized church, propose to extend it 
throughout this land and once more to subject the people 
to it as of old. Again : because it is essential to the per- 
manence and power of the Romish corporation. And 
again : because on this point Romanism has so fully de- 
veloped its tendencies and results in history that there are 
ample materials for a full and perfect judgment. 

It is plain that the Romanists contemplate the exten- 
sion of the celibacy of the clergy, and of monks, and Jes- 
uits, and nuns, throughout this country, from their avowals 
and their proceedings. They would subject us to such a 
system as France, and Spain, and Italy, and Austria have 
known and still know by a sad experience. We ought, 
therefore, to know what that experience was and is. We 
ought also to know what was the state of things in Europe 
at large before the reformation, that we may see what the 
system was when not counteracted by Protestantism. God, 
by an experience of long centuries, has given to us ample 
stores of knowledge on the subject, of which we ought to 
avail ourselves ; for if there is a subject on which the 

(155) 



156 



THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED. 



whole world ought to feel with a holy, God«mspired, all- 
pervading, fiery energy, it is this. In fact it is at this 
time calling up in Europe the attention of even Romish 
communities as well as of Protestants. On this point the 
Eclectic Review says, — 

" The great movement at present going on in Germany 
is a sufficient awakener. What has stirred like a tempest 
the whole ocean of Catholic life over almost every district 
of that great nation? The horrors resulting from the 
celibacy of the clergy, against which they have long pe- 
titioned the pope in vain. 

" The scandal to public morals and to private manners 
every where occasioned by the celibacy of the clergy, and 
the horrors resulting from that diabolical institution, have 
been of such a nature as completely to open the eyes of 
the most simple and stupid, and to occasion loud demands 
for its removal. According to Germ^an policy, every 
means has been used to suppress the knowledge of the ter- 
rible revelations which from time to time were taking- 
place. The press was securely prevented by the censor 
from ever alluding to them ; the police hushed all possible 
discussion regarding them. Yet, spi4;e of all this, such 
bloody and tragic facts have oozed through the thick wails 
of nunneries, and' cast a horrible shade on the still roofs 
of village parsonages, as have thrilled with indignant 
terror the heart of every hearer. In many parsonages 
the people have preferred -to see a family of children 
growing up, of whose parentage no question could be 
asked, to risking, even by a single remark, the increase 
of that feeling by which infanticide was made certain and 
fearfully frequent. In many states those religious pilgrim- 
ages to the shrines of certain popular saints, which still 
in Austria and Bavaria are very numerous, — in which 
often as many as ten thousand people will be engaged, 
making long journeys through solitary forests and o\'er the 
mountains, encamping in obscure places far from towns by 
night, and perhaps, for days, at the end of their journey, 
around the shrine, in some as lonely a spot, — have been 
obliged to be forbidden by government, from the license 



REASONS FOR CONSIDERING THIS SUBJECT. 15T 

and the crimes to which they gave origin, and in which 
the clergy often figured most mischievously for the inter- 
ests of religion. In Austria the resort to these shrines is 
still enormous. In the month of September alone the 
visitants to that of Maria Taferl, near Linz, often amount 
to one hundred and thirty thousand ; and all summer the 
people are streaming from Vienna and numberless other 
places to that of the Black Yirgia at Mariazell, in Styria." 

But, notwithstanding such things and even worse have 
been known to the Romish corporation, they are deter- 
mined to cling to the system with a death grasp ; for by 
it the clergy are detached from local attachments and cen- 
tralized around the Pope of Rome. The question of abol- 
ishing clerical celibacy was called up by the reformation ; 
it was carnestlj argued in the council of Trent. Leading 
Catholic sovereigns urged the measure ; but Papal policy 
resisi^<^d and prevailed. 

Nevertheless, such is the history of the past on this sub- 
ject that injured and insulted humanity every where ought 
to be aroused and animated by God till the whole system 
shall be consumed with avenging fire. On this point the 
same reviewer says, — 

" The governments of the most Catholic states are com- 
pelled to curb that license which the court of Rome allows, 
and to put down those atrocities which have received the 
patronage and the blessings of the most celebrated pon- 
tiffs. The very clergy themselves writhe and groan under 
the bondage into which the decree of Gregory VII. has 
thrown them — a decree which has condemned them to a 
living death, and made them, where they should be the 
fountains of holiness, the most prolific fountains of crime 
and scandal. In vain they have implored the pope to 
reconsider and abolish this unnatural decree ; its abolition 
now would bring down the whole Papal fabric. In the 
Black Songs of Benedict Dalei, purporting to be the po- 
etic autobiography of a Catholic priest, the whole terrible 
14 



168 



THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED. 



mystery of iniquity, the purgatory, and lonely wretched- 
ness of a priest's life are depicted with a feeling that makes 
you shrink with horror from the contemplation. It is this 
terrible reality, acting alike on priests and people in 
Catholic countries, making the priest's life a true misery, 
converting him into a spy and a tool, compelling him who 
has vowed before God to proclaim the truth into a studied 
and inevitable supportey of the most infamous frauds, a 
corrupter of the minds of the young, and a tyrant where 
he should be the friend, — it is because the confessional has 
become the soul trap of Satan and the well of all spiritual pol- 
lutions that the popular mind has revolted from the system 
throughout Germany, and will revolt from' it, finally, every 
where. In England we have had these horrors removed 
from our observation ; and therefore Catholicism is toler- 
able and even piquant to the imagination. Let M. Mi- 
chelet say what is in France." 

The concluding remarks of the Eclectic reviewer? are ap- 
plicable to this country. Popery here is not seen in its true 
character and full development, and therefore to some it 
seems tolerable ; and efforts have been made to render it 
piquant to the imagination. Bishop Kenrick has, with 
great audacity, undertaken this work. He has under- 
taken, not only to vindicate the system, but to prove that 
the influence of the confessional tends, "like a river of 
pure water from the temple of God, to wash away all the 
pollutions of society." 

It is therefore essential that every true American should 
be well informed on this great and momentous theme, af- 
fecting as it does the morals and the whole well being of 
coming ages. In vain does Bishop Kenrick say that the 
system works well here. A young tiger may seem, when 
in his infancy, as harmless as a kitten ; but it is a tiger 
still. I do not believe in the purity of the system here. 
But if it were so, what then? What if, when not full 
grown and surrounded by Protestant vigilance, it should 



REASONS FOR CONSIDERING THIS SUBJECT. 169 



not reveal itself as it always has in Eomanized countries ? 

Still, if ever it should gain the ascendency in this com- 
munity, its effects will surely be the same that they always 
have been. 

. Before God and this nation, then, let this system be ar- 
raigned, charged, and tried as the great corrupter of the 
clergy, and, through them, of mankind. The bishops who 
defend it, if ignorant, ought to be confronted with its past 
history. If not ignorant, as is probably the case with all 
of them, then their criminal attempts to delude the Amer- 
ican people ought to be exposed. 

It is impossible to over-estimate the importance of this 
part of the subject. It has been well said by an intelli- 
gent French writer, once a Eomanist, " The strength and 
vigor of Roman Catholics depend upon their priests ; 
through them is their only means of annoyance ; they are the 
true column of the Papacy.'' On no subject did Lafayette 
feel more deeply. Let us heed his warning voice. He 
said, " American liberty can be destroyed only by the 
Popish clergy." 

But let us be just. Young men are not corrupt, as a 
general fact, when they enter the Popish seminaries to 
prepare to become priests. It is the system of celibacy, 
and the confessional, and the company of priests already 
corrupted that corrupt them in successive generations in 
actual life. Those who are thus seduced and corrupted 
by an abominable system deserve our pity, although they 
do finally become hardened and reprobate. 

But what shall be said of that great central corpora- 
tion which, well knowing from age to age that this system 
was inundating the world with pollution, has, from mo- 
tives of power and profit, under hypocritical pretences 
of holiness, and against all protestations and remon- 
strances, upheld the system ? Ought they not to meet, in its 



160 



THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED, 



highest forms, the unmingled execration of mankind, and 
to encounter the fiery judgment of God ? 

I am well aware that this language is strong and these 
charges severe ; yet they are not the result of passionate 
excitement, but of deep conviction before God. I am 
willing to be held responsible for them. If I do not prove 
them, let me be dealt with as a slanderer. But if they 
are true, then, if any thing ought to move heaven and 
earth, yea, God and the whole universe, to retributive ven- 
geance, it is such facts as these. 



CHAPTER YI. 



THE VOICE OF HISTORY AND EXPERIENCE. 

It is fit that evidence should be adduced to sustain the 
correctness of the views v^hich have been presented of the 
corrupting influence of the celibacy of the clergy and the 
confessional. 

The most common and popular evidence is found in those 
severe allegations which converted Romish priests have 
made against the morals of the Romish clergy, and which are 
in full accordance with the views which have been given. 
But the Romanists repudiate the statements of such, as the 
foul slander of apostate priests. Thus they try to destroy 
the force of the testimony of Anthony Gavin, in his Master 
Key to Popery ; of Blanco White,- in his Practical and 
Internal Evidence against Catholicism ; of the Confes- 
sions of a Catholic. Priest, edited by Professor S. F. B. 
Morse, of New York ; of Giustiniani ; of Hogue ; and of 
others. Thus to a considerable extent the force of these 
works, even on many thoughtful and candid Protestants, is 
neutralized. 

For a time, then, we ought to rise above them, and to 
look at the developments of history on a great scale and 
at the testimony of Romanists themselves. If we take 
this course we shall come to the conclusion that these men 
have spoken the truth, and that without exaggeration, 

14 * ^161) 



162 



THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED. 



and, indeed, that the evil tendencies and malignant results 
of the system cannot be exaggerated. 

There is, in fact, abundant evidence to justify every 
Protestant in this nation and in the world in assuming as 
a practical basis of action the following positions : — 

That, in viev*^ of the known laws of human nature as 
^^established by God, and in view of the uniform and un- 
broken testimony of history, the celibacy of the clergy, 
especially as connected with the duty of hearing confes- 
sions, is in the highest sense an immoral and criminal 
INSTITUTION, hostile beyond the power of conception or 
expression alike to the religious, civil, and social interests 
of mankind, by reason of its malignant and corrupting 
power on the clergy, and, through them, on the com- 
munity. 

Moreover, though some of the Romish clergy may, in 
consequence of peculiarities of constitution or incidental 
or local influences, continue continent, yet in any particular 
case the presumption is always against every one who is 
under the influence of the system ; nor can this presumption 
be removed except by positive evidence to the contrary. 

And finally, such being the state of facts, there ought to 
be formed by divine aid, throughout this country and 
throughout the world, a sentiment of holy indignation so 
intense and all-pervading that it shall consume the system, 
and with it the energies of its guilty supporters, as with 
devouring fire. 

It is proper, in disclosing the testimony of history, to 
look with great care at that period when the church of 
Rome was in the ascendant throughout Europe, when 
there were no Protestants who had power to affect her by 
their public sentiment, but when all things were as she 
had made them. There is one advantage in looking first 



THE VOICE OF HISTORY AXD EXPERIENCE. 



16B 



at this period. We shall rely entirely on Roman Catholic 
documents. But first let us glance at the earlier ages. 



EARLY AGES. 

Celibacy, as has been remarked, sprung from heathenish 
errors. At first it vras encouraged by public sentiment. 
In 385 Pope Siricius enjoined it on the clergy. Other 
popes and early provincial councils confirmed the injunc- 
tion. Yet it was so at war with God and Nature that it 
led to constant pollution too gross to be described. 

The same was true of the early monasteries. With re- 
spect to these the statement of Isaac Taylor is comprehen- 
sive and sufficient : — 

"It were better to sustain in patience the imputation 
of advancing exaggerated statements, and of giving a 
stronger color to an argument than the facts of the case 
"vvould justify, than to do the uninitiated reader so serious 
an injury as to bring to light the evidence that bears upon 
this question. An appeal, therefore, is made to whoever 
has actually perused, or at least looked into, the ascetic 
writers, from Macarius, Ephraem, Palladius, and Cassian, 
downwards to those of the twelfth century. On the 
ground of the evidence which might from those sources 
be adduced a general result may be stated under three 
heads ; namely, — 

"1. That the monastic vow and the life of celibacy 

FAILED TO SECURE THE PROFESSED OBJECT of the institu- 
tion in all but a very few instances, and that it did not pro- 
mote that purity of the heart which was acknowledged to 
be its only good end. 

" 2. That, besides the evil of cutting men off from the 
common enjoyments, duties, and sympathies of life, the 
work of maintaining and defending their chastity (exterior 
and interior) absorbed almost the whole energies of those 
(a very few excepted) who sincerely labored at it ; so that 



164 - THE PAPAL COXSPIRACY EXPOSED. 

to be cliaste in fact and in heart was pretty nearly the 
sum of what the monk could do, even with the aid of 
starvation, excessive bodily toils, and depletic m.edicine ; 
to say nothing of his prayers, tears, and flagellations. 

" 3. That the monastic institution, even during its earlier 
and better era, entailed the most deplorable miseries and 
generated the foulest and most abominable practices ; so 
that, for every veritable saint which the monastery cherished, 
it made twenty wretches, whose moral condition was in 
the last degree pitiable or loathsome. 

''Now, shall we leave these propositions unsupported by 
proof ? or will the Romanist, the pride and prop of whose 
church is monkery, challenge us to make good our alle- 
gations ? " 

This tendency of the system of celibacy to great moral 
corruption was so constant and notorious that efforts were 
made in successive centuries to effect a reformation by 
various councils, at which time indignant disclosures were 
made of the real state of facts. There were no Protestants 
at that time. It was thought that reforms might be ef- 
fectually carried on within the church ; and, in order to 
effect so desirable a purpose, open and bold disclosures 
were made. 

TIME OF GREGORY VII. 

Not unfrequently, in spite of popes and councils, those 
priests who desired to avoid the prevailing profligacy had 
recourse to marriage, as a divine and honorable ordinance 
of God ; and at the time of the accession of the ambitious 
and imperious Gregory VII., in the eleventh century, 
the priesthood very extensively lived in a state of mat- 
rimony. 

But he saw that, if this state of things continued, they 
could not be bound as his purposes required to the Roman 
see, nor could the property of bishops and other ecclesias- 



THE VOICE OF HISTORY AND EXPERIENCE, 165 

tics be retained in the hands of the church. Hence he 
rigorously enforced, against great opposition, the celibacy 
of the clergy. He prohibited the laity from hearing mass 
when celebrated by a married priest. The married clergy 
called Gregory the patron of heresy and the abetter of a 
mad system, who by violence would compel men to live as 
angels, stop the course of nature, and give the slackened 
reins to all pollution. But resistance was vain. By canons, 
decretals, councils, false miracles, threats, violence, arms, 
fraud, flattery, anathemas, and excommunications he car- 
ried the day. His successors followed his example. That 
the great end aimed at has been the power of the Romish 
corporation, and not real chastity, is obvious from the 
fact that, whilst honorable marriage has been prohibited 
under pain of excommunication, concubinage has been con- 
nived at, and sometimes even licensed. 

After the celibacy of the clergy had, in the eleventh 
century, been thoroughly enjoined, in the thirteenth century 
Innocent HI. fully established and enforced auricular con- 
fession ; and thus was the existing system fully organized. 
From Gregory YH. to the time of the reformation Popery 
in its fullest development had been in constant operation — 
a space of four centuries. If, then, as Bishop Kenrick af- 
firms, celibacy and the confessional tend to eminent holi- 
ness, the clergy, the church, and the world should have 
been eminently sanctified. How was it ? 



CENTURIES BEFORE THE REFORMATION. 

We will appeal first, not to an individual, but to a 
council — the council of Paris in 1429. From them we 
receive the astounding information that not only were the 
clergy incontinent and immoral, but that they were note- 



166 



THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED. 



riousl}' so, to such a degree as to scandalize and degrade 
the whole Christian world. 

In the preamble to a canon designed to reform the 
existing state of things they say, — 

" On account of the crime of concubinage, with which 
multitudes of the clergy and monks are infected, the 
church of God and the whole clergy are held in derision, 
abomination, and dishonor among all nations ; and that 
abominable crime has so prevailed in the house of God 
that Christians do not now consider mere fornication a 
mortal sin." — Council of Paris 1429, c. xxiii. ; Mansi, 
xxviii. p. 1107. 

Let it here be noticed that we have not a Protestant 
slander, nor the assertion of an individual, but the solemn 
decision of a grave Roman Catholic council, assembled in 
Paris, the capital of Franc.e, the centre of Europe. The 
disclosure of facts is clear and terrific ; but the attempted 
remedy was powerless. 

Turning from this" council to the councils of Yalladolid 
and Toledo, in Spain, the first in 1322, the other in 1473,- 
we find similar testimony. The first condemns "the 
outrageously dissolute lives of a portion of the clergy, 
who, regardless of reputation and safety, lived iii public 
concubinage." The latter represented them as living in 
the filthiest atrocity, and as contemptible to the people, 
and as daring to touch the body of the Lord with polluted 
hands. A German council, in 1225, accused -the priest- 
hood of unchastity, voluptuousness, and obscenity. Two 
councils in Cologne, in 1536 and 1549, even after the ref- 
ormation, repeated and augmented these charges. Ac- 
cording to them, monks, nuns, and clergy were alike de- 
filed. Of all others, the Italian and Roman clergy were 
most licentious. In 1538 a select council, convened by 
Paul IV., declared that they kept courtesans in splendid 



THE VOICE OF HISTORY AND EXPERIENCE. 167 

palaces, who at noonday walked or rode through the city, 
attended by the clergy and nobility, the friends of the 
cardinals. It is notorious that the Roman pontiffs were 
often as filthy as their clergy, and exemplified every spe- 
cies of licentiousness and pollution. Fornication, adul- 
tery, incest, and sodomy are in the list of their crimes. 
This testimony of Eomish councils could be sustained by 
that of Romish historians and divines too many to re- 
count. Nor is their testimony local ; it relates to every 
nation under the jurisdiction of Rome. Especially in the 
councils of Constance and of Basil were most astounding 
disclosures made by those who were urging the necessity 
of a reform. So also the statements of Nicholas de Cla- 
menge, J. Trithemius, Stephen, Bishop of Brandenburg, 
and many others are horrific. 

Indeed the whole church and the whole world groaned, 
under the all-pervading corruption generated by the law 
of celibacy. All historians, all councils, are full of the 
theme ; but language cannot utter aU the fearful, the ap- 
palling truth. The eminently learned, impartial, and accu- 
rate Gieseler gives the following brief view of the state 
of the clergy during the fifteenth century up to the time 
of the reformation, sustaining his assertions by the irref- 
utable testimony of numerous Roman Catholic writers 
and councils : — 

" Their chief oflence, their incontinence, seemed to grow 
worse the more there was done to restrain it. The severe 
lectures read them on the subject at the councils of Con- 
stance and Basil had as little influence upon the conduct 
of most of the clergy there assembled as the decrees 
passed at those councils had on the state of the church at 
large in this respect. In no century had there been so 
many decrees passed against the concubinage of the clergy 
as in the fifteenth ; yet in none were complaints so com- 
mon of their incontinence, (which in Italy degenerated 



168 



THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED. 



even into unnatural vices,) as well as derision and lamen- 
tation over the inefficiency of all the means used to restrain 
them. The number of the offenders made it difficult or 
impossible to carry into effect the more severe punishments ; 
whilst the avarice of the bishops was easily gratified by 
substituting therefor pecuniary mulcts, which soon changed 
into an annual tax. The commonness of the offence made 
it seem to the clergy themselves a light thing. Of course 
the laity could not be expected to view it in any other 
light ; and in consequence the vice increased to a fearful 
degree, so as at the end of the fifteenth century to give 
birth to a new and disgusting disease.. As early as the 
council of Constance it was openly said that nothing could 
remedy these evils but to allow the marriage of priests ; 
but such was the strength of prejudice that men in other 
respects liberal in their views — as, for instance, the Chan- 
cellor Gerson — resisted every effort to change the existing 
laws of the church. There always continued to be intel- 
ligent men who advocated the marriage of priests ; but 
THE INTERESTS OF THE HIERARCHY wcre too deeply involved 
in the question to expect them to yield." —Yol. iii. pp. 
278-283, American edition. 



CHARACTER OF BISHOPS AND COUNCILS. 



We need not wonder that the decrees of councils pro- 
duced no effect, since it was well known that a large pro- 
portion of the bishops composing them were guilty of the 
same offence, and none were free from the suspicion. In- 
deed at the councils themselves many of the clergy openly 
had their concubines. Hence Petrus de Pulka, professor 
in Vienna, said, in an address delivered before the council 
of Constance, "Attend and consider! Behold how the 
clergy of the Roman court, which, from the commence- 
ment of this schism, is regarded as depraved beyond hu- 
man depravity, and in like manner the clergy of this 
diocese, — nay, more, of this city, and of the synod itself-— 



THE VOICE OF HISTORY AND EXPERIENCE. 



169 



cbey our injunctions ! Consider, I pray you, whether from 
reverence to this sacred synod, in whose presence they daily 
are, they have even in the least degree amended their dis- 
solute lives. Undeniably the clergy of the Roman court 
are affirmed to retain their concubines without shame be- 
fore all." The Yiennese manuscript asserts that there 
were in attendance on the council of Constance, by which 
Huss was burned for heresy, fifteen hundred common or 
public women. 

This state of things in the council of Lyons was still 
worse. It totally demoralized the city where it was con- 
vened. 

The celebrated Chancellor Gerson, who was one of the 
ruling spirits of the council of Constance, in his answer 
to Saignet acknowledged the impossibility of checking the 
incontinence of the clergy, and accommodated his theory 
of morals to the fact. He held that by incontinency the 
clergy did not violate their vows, but by marriage they 
did ; for they merely vowed not to contract marriage, but 
did not vow to be continent. To remedy the evil as far 
as may be, he recommends " to sin in that way as little as 
possible, and meantime to do as many good deeds as pos- 
sible, and to be very careful when they do sin not to do it 
openly, or on the festivals, or in sacred places, or with 
married persons." What must have been the effect of the 
Romish system of celibacy on morals when the most emi- 
nent man in the church at that time could thus write ? 

The decree of the council of Basil in 1435, as Gieseler 
states it, prohibited all priests to live in open concubinage. 
This provision would seem to be based upon the moral 
principles of Chancellor Gerson. At a synod in Breslau 
and in various councils, especially in Italy, fines were im- 
posed on such offenders ; and, in spite of decrees of other 
councils, this practice was extensively adopted by the 
15 



170 



THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED. 



bishops — thus making the vices of the clergy a source of 
gain. 

Agrippa mentions a bishop who boasted of having in 
his diocese eleven thousand priests, who severally paid 
their superior every year a guinea for leave to keep con- 
cubines. (See Edgar, p. 526.) 



POPULAR BELIEF AND FEELING. 

Gieseler says, " The laity were glad in any way to se- 
cure their families from the attacks of priestly lust, and fa- 
vored, or even furthered, the permanent connection of their 
priests with concubines." — Yol. iii. p. 83. 

Nicholas of Clamenge says, " The laity are so thorough- 
ly convinced that all the clergy are incontinent that in 
very many parishes they will not tolerate a priest unless 
he has a concubine. This they do to defend their wives, 
who even thus are by no means out of danger." (Giese- 
*ler, iii. 83.) The Swiss especially took this course, ^neas 
Sylvius, who became pope, says of the Frieslanders, "They 
are unwilling to receive priests who have no wives, fear- 
ing that they will defile those of other men ; for they re- 
gard it as unnatural and impossible for unmarried men to 
live in continence." — Gieseler, iii. 83. 

This was also the opinion of ^neas Sylvius himself ; 
and on this ground he defended himself when in the coun- 
cil of Basil he received from his father the intelligence of 
the birth of a son. Accordingly when cardinal and when 
pope he conceded that, viewing the question simply on the 
ground of principle, the law of clerical celibacy ought to 
be abolished. 

Alvarus Pelagius, speaking of Spain and another prov- 
ince, says that in them the number of the children of the 



THE VOICE OF HISTORY AND EXPERIENCE. 171 

laity little exceeded that of the children of the priests. In 
Ireland and Norway a similar state of things existed, and 
the synods only prohibited public concubinage. 



PRESENT STATE OF THINGS. 

This state of open corruption did not at once disappear 
even after the reformation. And even now the same great 
river of pollution flows through Romish countries, al- 
though its course is more under ground. 

On this point the learned, cautious, and discriminating 
Isaac Taylor says, " It is fair to assume that, of a body of 
men taken at hazard from the mass and placed under the 
restraint (or rather the professioii) of continence, a con- 
siderable portion, perhaps a third, will very early in their 
course throw off every thing but their hypocrisy and be- 
come thoroughly profligate. The notorious condition of 
those countries where nothing has forbidden the natural 
expansion of the Romish system would warrant our af- 
firming that two thirds of its clergy come under such a 
description. Nay, perhaps our English credulity would 
be ridiculed at Madrid, Grenada, Lisbon, Florence, Lima, 
or Rio Janeiro if we presumed that more than a very few 
of the sacerdotal class were not utterly debauched." — Fa- 
naticism, p. 137. 



CHAPTER VII. 



BISHOP KENRICK'S DEFENCE. 

Many wonders occur in the history of this world — 
among which may be mentioned the bold assertions of 
Bishop Kenrick in defence of the confessional in the 
hands of an unmarried clergy. 

In the number of Brownson's Quarterly for July, 1846, 
is an article intended as a defence of the Romish system 
of the confessional. We have good authority for ascrib- 
ing it to the pen of Bishop Kenrick. Public attention has 
of late been somewhat directed towards his own writings 
on this subject, and he seems to feel that he is called on 
to step forward in defence of the system. Bishop Kenrick 
is, undoubtedly, one of the ablest defenders of Romanism 
in this country ; and his works on doctrinal and moral the- 
ology, as well as his defence of the Papal supremacy, indi- 
cate no small degree of natural ability. If he were but 
on the side of truth he would be an able writer indeed : 
as it is, his naturally good powers are continually crippled 
by the false and absurd system which he has undertaken 
to defend. 

He says, in the language of another, " If it led to licen- 
tiousness or danger, that licentiousness or that danger 
would have come to light, and there would be tongues 
enough to tell it." 

This implies that such licentiousness and danger have 

(172) 



BISHOP KENRICK'S DEFENCE. 



173 



not come to light and have not been told by millions of 
tongues. On this point let history testify. 

He, however, does not go radically into the defence of 
the confessional, because, as he assures us, he regards 
it as needless to reply at great length " to the charges 
advanced against an institution which is essentially di- 
rected to wash away the defilements of sin, and which 
is in the church like a majestic river, whose waters 
absorb the impurities which they meet with in their 
course." 

On the other hand, he seems to repose most confidence 
in an appeal to the observation of American Protestants, 
and also to the convictions of American Romanists. With 
affecting simplicity he says, p. 337, " Without referring 
our readers to distant or past evidence, we at once ap- 
peal to the instinctive feeling of the Catholic community 
around us." 

Is there not crafty philosophy in this ? One would think 
that the proper way to test the Rgmish system of the con- 
fessional would be to go to those communities in which it 
has exercised its full power, unobstructed by Protestant- 
ism, and developed its mature results. For example : the 
pope has taken great pains to purge Italy by fire and 
sword of the least leaveu of Protestantism. Why not, 
then, appeal to Italy, and hold up the spotless purity of 
society there, where the confessional has poured out its 
full stream of purifying influence for ages ? Why not 
give us a little of the history of morals at Rome, the cen- 
tre of the system ? 0, no ; the bishop does not intend to 
furnish us with any such distant or past evidence. With 
striking sagacity he comes into the midst of communities 
where Protestantism is in the ascendency and has created 
. a high tone of morals ; where Romanists are a small 
minority, surrounded by vigilant eyes, exposed to the 
15* 



174 



THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED. 



searching scrutiny of Protestant presses, over which Ro- 
manism has not yet been able to establish a censorship. 
Yes ; he comes here and makes his appeal to Catholics in 
these circumstances for evidence of the purifying power 
of the confessional. We tell the bishop, in all frankness, 
that he very much underrates the intellect of his Prot- 
estant readers if he thinks that they are to be affected by 
such reasoning as this. But as he does not see fit to refer 
his readers to distant or past evidence, we shall endeavor 
in some degree to supply his lack of service. 



EXPERIENCE OF SPAIN, 

We will, then, summon the bishop and our readers to a 
country eminently blessed with Romish influences ; fa- 
vored as the great head quarters of the Inquisition, which, 
by fire and sword and tortures ineffable, has thoroughly 
purged out the leaven of Protestantism. We need not 
say that this country is Spain. 

Is it not a just and equitable rule to look for the true 
tendencies of a system where it has a fair field and full 
opportunity to develop itself, and nothing to check its 
course ? Here, then, ought we to see the full power of 
the confessional, as a majestic river washing away the de- 
filements of sin. 

But how was it ? We answer. It was so ordered in the 
providence of God that precisely here was made in the 
most conspicuous manner, and in sight of all nations, a 
public display of the ineffable pollutions and defilements 
of the system, and of the utter want of power and also 
of hearty will on the part of the managers of the system 
to prevent them. 

It appears, then, that, at the close of half a century after 



BISHOP KENRICK's DEFENCE. 



175 



the reformation, Lutheran opinions have so far prevailed in 

Spain as to call for four aidos da fe against the Lutherans, 
two in Yalladolid and two in Seville. It was also dis- 
covered that the tendency towards Lutheranism was in- 
creased bj a general persuasion of the profligacy of the 
priests, and in particular by the public accusation that 
they used the confessional as a means of seduction. This 
led to sundry remarks, not peculiarly agreeable, with 
respect to the Eoman church as the mother of harlots and 
of abominations. 

So pressing was the exigency of the case that report 
was made to the pope, and he felt compelled to interpose. 
Accordingly, on January 18, 1556, Paul lY. addressed a 
brief to the inquisitors of Grenada, in which he com- 
manded them to prosecute those priests whom the j[)ublic 
voice accused of seduction, and not to pardon one of them. 
The Archbishop of Grenada and the council of the Inquisi- 
tion decided that the publication of the brief in the usual 
form would produce great inconveniences, and that prudence 
and moderation were needed. They therefore, to remedy 
the evil, privately notified the confessors in general of the 
purport of the brief, and said nothing to the people. 

This course convinced the pope that the abuse was not 
confined to the kingdom of Grenada. Accordingly, in 1561, 
Pius lY. addressed a brief to Yaldes, the inquisitor general, 
authorizing him to proceed against the guilty confessors in 
all the domains of Philip, the most Catholic king. This 
bull affirmed the crime to exist "in the kingdoms of Spain 
and in the cities and dioceses thereof." 

It seems to have been still judged inexpedient by the 
ecclesiastics and inquisitors in most provinces to give 
this notice. But in some, and especially in Seville, the in- 
quisitors gave the required public notice and called for 
information against the guilty, requiring all females thus 



176 



THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED. 



abused and all privy to such acts to inform the Inquisition 
within thirty days, attaching severe penalties to the neglect 
or disobedience of the injunction. Then followed a scene 
unparalleled in the history of the world ; but, in the prov- 
idence of God, it was a true and fearful revelation of 
Popery. In the words of Edgar, " Maids and matrons of 
the nobility and peasantry, of every rank and situation, 
crowded to the Inquisition. The fair informers in Seville 
alone were so numerous timt all the inquisitors and twenty 
notaries were insufficient in thirty days to take their deposi- 
tions. Thirty additional days had three several times to be 
appointed for the reception of informations. And finally 
the multitude of criminals, the jealousy of husbands, and 
the odium which the discovery threw on auricular confes- 
sion and the Popish priesthood caused the sacred tribunal 
to quash the prosecution and to consign the depositions to 
oblivion." (See Edgar's Variations of Popery, pp. 528, 
529, and McCrie's History of the Reformation in Spain, 
p. 242.) 

For authorities to sustain these facts, Edgar refers to 
Gonsalvus, Lorente, and Limborch. The pungency and 
particularity of the statement seem to come from Gon- 
salvus, whom Lorente calls Raynaldus Gonzalvius Mon- 
tanus, and McCrie Montanus. All agree that the accusa- 
tions ceased because the demand of the Inquisition was 
repealed. But Lorente thinks that Gonsalvus exaggerates 
the number of the informers. It were to be hoped that it 
is so for the honor of humanity ; but. on any view of the 
case, what can be conceived of more horrible than such a 
disclosure of priestly villany and depravity ? 

Those who remember the account given by Gavin of the 
discovery and exposure of the seraglio of the inquisitors 
in Arragon by a Spanish and French army, in 1706, will 
not have much faith in the purity of the inquisitors of an 



BISHOP KENRICK'S DEFENCE. 



earlier generation. At all events, they manifested a 
remarkable leniency towards the crime of seduction. To 
be a Lutheran was intolerable. Nothing could atone for 
it but to be burned at a public auto da fe. Lorente, how- 
ever, informs us that those guilty of seduction by the 
confessional were never publicly exposed at an auto da fe. 
They made a private confession and abjuration of their 
practical heresy and of all others, and were then absolved 
and confined for a time in a convent ! 

Here, then, we have a fair illustration of the manner in 
which the confessional washed away the pollution of Spain. 
So, too, would it now purify America, if Romanism had 
had the ascendency here that it has had in Spain. 

Does this look like the course of a majestic river, washing 
away the defilements of sin ? or like a part of her system 
upon whose forehead was a name written, Mystery, Babylon 
the great, the mother of harlots and abominations of the 
earth ?, Do not such results flow inevitably from the con- 
fessional in the hands of an unmarried clergy? Nor is 
this a state of things peculiar to Spain. It is impossible 
to make such a system tend to any thing but pollution. It 
is in direct violation of the great laws of human society 
ordained by God himself, and it creates an intensity of 
temptation that on the great scale never was resisted, and 
never will be. In the words of the Eclectic Review, " It 
is a terrible reality, acting alike on priests and people in 
Catholic countries, making the priest's life a true misery, 
converting him into a spy and a tool, compelling him who 
has vowed before God to proclaim the truth into a studied 
and inevitable supporter of the most infamous fraud, a 
corrupter of the minds of the young, and a tyrant where he 
should be the friend.'' And let any one study thoroughly 
the state of things in Italy, and he will find it worse, if 
worse be possible, than even in Spain, and worst of all at 



178 



THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED. 



Eome. And in Germany, Austria, France, Mexico, South 
America, and Cuba, is there any reason why the same 
system should not produce the same results ? To prove 
that such is the fact, we shall proceed to state a few more 
facts for the consideration of the bishop. 

Meantime we repeat the strong statement of the Ec- 
lectic Review, than which nothing more true was ever 
uttered : — 

"It is because the confessional has become the 

SOUL TRAP OF SaTAN AND THE WELL OF ALL SPIRITUAL POL- 
LUTIONS THAT THE POPULAR MIND HAS REVOLTED FROM THE 
SYSTEM THROUGHOUT GERMANY, AND WILL REVOLT FROM IT, 
FINALLY, EVERY WHERE." - 

And shall America nourish a system of pollution which 
even Catholic Europe, with all its degradation, is about to 
reject and abhor ? 

PROOF FROM BISHOP KENRICK AND PAPAL LEGISLATION. 

Is it to be supposed, then, that Bishop Kenrick knew 
these facts when he said of the confessional, " If it led to 
licentiousness or danger, that licentiousness or that danger 
would have come to light, and there would be tongues 
enough to tell it"? We answer, Certainly; there is the 
best possible evidence of the fact — even the incidental 
testimony of the bishop himself. 

He well knew, and will not dare to deny it, as will soon 
appear, that the evils of clerical seduction by means of the 
confessional even since the reformation have been so great 
in European countries as to cause a scandal so widespread 
as to endanger the interests of the Papacy. Urged by 
such considerations, he well knew that several popes in 



BISHOP KENRICK S DEFENCE. 



179 



succession were compelled to issue bull after bull designed 
to rectify the evil. Moreover we have his own confession 
on the subject. 

What, then, does Bishop Kenrick say as it regards the 
use of the confessional as a means of priestly seduction ? 
He confesses, in express terms, that it has been so used, 
and he occupies seven pages of the third volume of his 
treatise on moral theology in stating the legislation that 
the feistence of this practice has rendered necessary in 
the Romish church. These pages occur in Tractatus xix., 
De Poenitentia, chap. x. sect, vi., entitled De Crimine 
Solicitationis, vol. iii. pp. 235-240. Of this legislation I 
shall give some account in its place. I will here in general 
remark, that no one can read these seven pages in Bishop 
Kenrick and not find in them internal evidence of the 
widespread existence in Romish communities of the very 
things alleged by converted Romish priests, and which 
Romanists call slander. He will find detailed legislation on 
the subject of seduction by the confessional of such a kind 
as never could exist without a corresponding cause in the 
state of the body politic demanding it. What that cause 
is was clearly disclosed in the progress of the effort in 
Spain which we have already detailed, put forth by the 
full power of the pope and the Inquisition, to prosecute 
and punish those who had been guilty of priestly seduction 
by means of the confessional. The attempt proved that 
the whole body of the clergy were so deeply implicated 
that it became necessary to abandon the prosecution in 
order to save their characters from ruin. 

Let us, then, consider the confession of Bishop Kenrick 
himself. At the commencement of his discussion of the 
topic of priestly seduction by means of the confessional 
he writes as follows. We translate from the Latin : — 



180 



THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED. 



SECTION VI. — CONCERNING THE CRIME OF SEDUCTION. 

" We scarcely dare to speak concerning that atrocious 
crime in which the office of hearing confession is perverted 
to the ruin of souls by impious men under the influence 
of their lusts. Would that we could regard it as solely 
a conception of the mind and as something invented -by 
the enemies of the faith for the purposes of slander ! But 
it is not fit that we should be ignorant of the decrees 
which the pontiffs have issued to defend the sacredness of 
this sacrament." 

So, then, Bishop Kenrick himself being judge, the crime 
of priestly seduction by means of the confessional is not a 
mere imaginary conception, but an atrocious reality. It 
is not a slander of the enemies of the church, but a noto- 
rious historic truth — so notorious that it is in vain to 
deny it — so notorious that many pontiffs have been 
obliged to issue their decrees to defend the sacredness of 
the sacrament of confession. 

Well, too, does Bishop Kenrick say that it is not fit 
• that we should be ignorant of these decrees. It is not fit. 
We will endeavor to dissipate this ignorance. They throw 
great light on the subject. They reveal the existence of 
a state of society in Catholic communities which nothing 
but the system of the private confession of females to an 
unmarried priesthood could produce. And when Bishop 
Kenrick now comes forward to advocate the cause of all 
these evils, and to urge its universal introduction among 
us, we will do all in our power to dissipate the ignorance 
that still exists on a system so powerful and so pernicious. 

PRINCIPLES OF REASONING STATED AND APPLIED. 

But, before we proceed to consider the Papal legislation 



BISHOP KENRICK^S DEFENCE. 



181 



on this subject, we will consider the proper mode of rea- 
soning* from such legislation. 

Professor William Smyth, of the University of Cam- 
bridge, England, in order to throw light on the state of 
society among the barbarians, devotes part of one lecture 
to a consideration of their codes of laws. After giving 
a general view of the salic code, he proceeds to illustrate 
the manner of reasoning from such codes. "We quote a 
part of his statements, with the design of applying the 
same mode of reasoning to the Papal legislation as stated 
by Bishop E!enrick : — 

" Whenever the laws of a nation can be perused, a va- 
riety of conclusions can be drawn from them which the 
laws themselves were never intended to convey — conclu- 
sions that relate to the manners and situation of a nation 
more certain and important than can in any other way be 
obtained. I will give a specimen of this sort of reason- 
ing ; and my hearer must hereafter employ the same sort 
of reasoning on these codes and on every system of laws 
which he has ever an opportunity of considering. For 
instance, there is one head that respects petty thefts of 
different kinds. 

" He who stole a knife was to be fined fifteen solidi ; 
but, though he stole as much flax as he could carry, he 
was only fined three. Iron was, therefore, difficult to pro- 
cure, or its manufacture not easy. The fertility of the 
land had done more for these Franks than their own pa- 
tience or ingenuity ; i. e., they were barbarians. Again : 
he who killed another was only fined ; but we are not to 
suppose that this arose from any superior tenderness of 
disposition. There is a distinct head in these laws (the 
thirty-first) on the subject of mutilations ; the very first 
clause runs thus : — 

" ' If any one shall cut off a foot, or hand, or dig out an 
eye, or cut oft" an ear or nose of any one,' &c. 

The most horrible excesses evidently took place. 
Nothing more need be said of the manners or disposition 
of a people in whose laws such outrages are particularized. 
16 



182 



THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED. 



That union of tenderness and courage, of sympathy 
and fortitude, of the softer and severer virtues which 
forms the perfection of the human character is not to be 
found among savage nations ; it is only the occasional and 
inestimable production of civilized life. 

" Again : there is mention made of hedges and en- 
closures. Agriculture had, therefore, made some prog- 
ress." 

In the same way, from the laws of ancient Glreece and 
Rome we 'can reason as to the state of society in those na- 
tions ; for laws are not formed on mere theory, to guard 
against imaginary crimes, nor do they enter into the minute 
detail of unknown crimes by way of anticipation : they 
are designed to be a defence against real and existing 
evils. 

So is it with regard to the legislation of the popes on 
this subject ; for it is incredible that any pope would 
have descended into the particulars of all the various 
modes of priestly seduction, and detailed things so offen- 
sive and abominable, even the idea and the very sugges- 
tion of which tend to injure the priesthood, if the corrupt 
workings of the confessional had not brought out all these 
details in fact. 

We easily see the evil tendencies of the confessional in 
theory ; but here we see them developed in real life, and 
our convictions of the evils of the system are greatly 
deepened. It is always perfectly plain that the confes- 
sional is liable to be used for purposes of seduction in 
numerous ways. It is also plain that the priests are, by 
compulsory celibacy, placed in circumstances of - the high- 
est temptation to use it for such purposes. No system 
can be more perfectly framed to secure such an end. 
And yet, until Papal laws are read, no one would easily 
imagine in how many ways it has been so used. To 
get light on this point, we turn to Bishop Kenrick's 



BISHOP KENRICK's DEFENCE. 



183 



statement of Papal legislation. By examining this legis- 
lation, we arrive at the following results. The state 
of things in the Roman Catholic Church has rendered it 
necessary to specify nineteen different ways in which ad- 
Yantage can be taken of the system of the confessional as 
a means of seduction, and to declare that whoever uses it 
in any of these ways is to be reported to the Inquisition 
by the female solicited. These nineteen cases are sub- 
divided and classified as follows : — 

1. Solicitation during the act of confession, five cases. 

2. Solicitation before the act of confession, two cases. 

3. Solicitation immediately after confession, three cases. 

4. Solicitation to which confession furnishes an occa- 
sion, four cases. 

5. Solicitation under the pretext of confession, two cases. 

6. Solicitation in the confessional, although no con- 
fession is made, one case. 

7. Solicitation, in any other place besides the confes- 
sional, if it is used for purposes of confession, two cases. 

Now, who can even read over this general statement of 
the topics of these laws and not receive new light as to 
the extensive applicability of the confessional for purposes 
of seduction ? It can be used before confession, during 
confession, and immediately after confession. It furnishes 
occasions for seduction long after confession is over. It 
furnishes a pretext for seduction ; it furnishes a place for 
it ; and, if there is no confessional, a place can be chosen 
where the same diabolical purpose can be prosecuted. 

By the celibacy of the clergy they are led into the 
highest degree of temptation, and then by the confessional 
there is offered to them every variety of excitement and 
of aid to prosecute the gratification of their excited de- 
sires. But, if we descend to the details of these nineteen 
cases as given by Bishop Kenrick, we shall obtain a still 



184 



THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED. 



more vivid conception of the actual use of the system for 
this purpose. 

For an example, I will take the second specification of 
the fourth general division — i. e., solicitation to which 
confession furnishes an occasion. This is the case of one 
Qui, ex fragilitate in confessione cognita, sumit occasionem, 
earn tentandi — Who, from any frailty discovered in con- 
fession, takes an occasion afterwards to tempt the female 
who has confessed." 

How clearly does this specification bring the wide- 
spread working of that pernicious system before the mind I 
Here, now, is an unmarried priest surrounded by hundreds 
or thousands of females. They have their frailties, their 
impure thoughts, their temptations, it may be their lapses ; 
but, without the system of the confessional, no man could 
tell what they are. And, if a licentious or tempted un- 
married priest wished to seduce any of his flock, he would 
have no guide ; and, ignorant and fearful, he might be re- 
pelled from the attempt. But here the confessional comes 
to his aid. It spreads before him a perfect map of every 
female heart in his whole flock, for they are to disclose to 
him their most secret thoughts as to God ; for in hearing 
confession, as Dens tells us, he acts as God, and not as 
man. And now he knows the weaknesses, the tempta- 
tions, the frailties, and the falls of every one ; he studies 
their characters ; he knows how to approach them ; and, 
wherever afterwards he may meet them, the disclosures 
of the confessional are present to his mind, and furnish 
him with innumerable occasions to compass his end. 

Of what use is it, now, to pass a law that lie who avails 
himself of any of these occasions to tempt a female shall 
be reported by that female to the Inquisition ? You might 
as well pour water on an inclined plane, and then by law 
forbid it to run down. But this is only one out of nine- 



BISHOP KENRICK'S DEFENCE. 



185 



teen specifications. Let ns look at another. Take the 
fourth specification under the same division ; it is the case 
of one Qui aliquem solicitaf, promittens se earn covjitentem, 
deinceps excepturum — " Who solicits a female to sin, prom- 
ising that he will afterwards receive her to make confes- 
sion.'' What power of temptation in the system does this 
simple statement disclose ! It not only gives to the priest 
light to choose his victims, but, if any through fear of the 
penalties of sin refuse to comply with his desires, it ena- 
bles him to say, You need not fear the consequences ; have 
I not the power to remit sins ? Comply with my request, 
and then I will hear you confess and free you from all 
guilt. After having furnished such means of temptation 
and delusion, how vain the hope that any law will check 
their use ! The trial in Spain to execute the laws clearly 
proved that the system produced its natural results and 
that the laws were of no avail. Even the attempt to 
execute them was abandoned. 

Take another instance from the first division, case five : 
Charta ad venerem incitans, sen literce ainatorice, in trihunale 
traditcB, solicitationis, instar sunt — "Anything written on 
paper adapted to excite love, or a love letter, delivered in 
the tribunal, is equivalent to solicitation in the confession- 
al." This principle was first established by Alexander 
YII., in 1655, in opposition to a contrary doctrine. This is 
worthy of the more notice as tending to throw light on the 
effects of the confessional on the morals of Romish ecclesi- 
astics ; for it appears by the testimony of Bishop Kenrick 
that the following proposition had actually been maintained 
by some of them : "A confessor who in the sacrament of 
confession gives the penitent a letter to be read after- 
wards, in which he excites her to love, is not regarded as 
having solicited her in confession, and therefore is not to be 
reported." (See vol. iii. Theologia Moralis, p. 236.) This 
16* 



186 



THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED. 



proposition Alexander YII. felt himself called on to con- 
demn. To what a state of degradation must the system 
of the confessional have reduced priestly morals when 
the pontiff was obliged to condemn such a proposition as 
this ! and how clearly it shows that, although many speci- 
fications had been at first condemned in the bull of Greg- 
- ory XY. in 1622, yet, before 1655, the priests had in- 
vented a way of evading them all ! For though 'all who 
solicited females in confession were to be reported to the 
Inquisition, yet the discovery was made that to give a love 
letter in the confessional, to be read after confession, was 
not to solicit in confession, and was not therefore to be 
reported. Admirable sagacity ! wonderful discrimina- 
tion ! What cobwebs are laws against the momentum of 
depraved desires I By this subtle distinction, till at last 
the pope condemned it, the whole field was again cleared 
for the unobstructed prosecution of their nefarious designs. 

We have quoted but three out of nineteen cases. If we 
were in like manner to specify and comment on the whole 
nineteen, each in its turn would light up a new lamp to 
expose the dark recesses of this dreary region of pollu- 
tion, and justify the divine denunciation of the whole 
system as Babylon the great, the mother of harlots and 
abominations of the earth. 

And let no one dare to call this Protestant slander. 
Bishop Kenrick, the volunteer defender of the confes- 
sional, and the popes, his lords and masters, are our wit- 
nesses. 

Well did Professor Smyth remark that, " whenever the 
laws of a nation can be perused, a variety of conclusions 
can be drawn from them which the laws themselves loere 
never- intended to convey.^' Neither Pope Gregory XY; by 
his laws, nor Bishop Kenrick by his digest and exposition 
of them, intended to unfold the abominations of the con- 



BISHOP KENRICK's DEFENCE. 187 

fessional ; yet they have done it in the clearest and most 
ample manner. Well does Professor Smyth say of con- 
clusions thus derived, that they are " more certain and 
important than can in any other way be obtained." 

Let us, then, proceed in our examination of Bishop Ken- 
rick for new light on the abominations of the confessional. 
The third case under the fourth head is as follows : — 

" Qui autem puellce vel voce, vel signo aliquo, peccati in con- 
fessione declarati memoriam refricaret, dum alias earn solicita- 
T'et, occasione confessionis solicitasse merito censeretur, et reus 
foret proditi sigilli — ' Whoever shall remind a female, 
either by word or sign, of a sin which she has revealed in 
confession, whilst at another time he solicits her, is justly 
considered as having taken an occasion to solicit from 
confession, and is guilty of violating the seal — i. e., of 
secrecy.' '' 

Here, now, how vividly do we see the effects of the con- 
fessional in removing all those natural and divinely or- 
dained obstacles to impure conversation between a priest 
and the females of his flock which are the safeguard of 
social purity ! If the natural laws of female modesty 
were left to operate in full force, and the priest had no 
religious pretext for introducing sensual ideas, who does 
not see what powerful obstacles would exist to the intro- 
duction of impure conversation? The natural modesty, 
both of the female mind and of an uncorrupted priest, 
would prevent. 

But here the accursed system of the confessional inter- 
poses, and, under a pretence of religion, introduces a reg- 
ular conversation at stated intervals between the priest 
and every female of his flock on all topics involved in 
the violation of chastity, in thought, word, and deed. 
Thus the subject is introduced — thus it is kept up before 
the mind. There is not a female with whom the priest 



188 THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED. 



has not conversed upon it. He knows the depraved de- 
sires, the sinful feelings, the corrupt wishes, the unclean 
acts of all. 

And now the fiery oven of temptation is heated and 
continually "burns around him. His own passions are 
aroused. He knows how to wake up in others all those 
trains of thought that lead to temptation ; he knows how 
to appeal to the consciousness of the female mind by signs 
recalling the disclosures of the confessional. And now, 
forsooth, what is to stop him ? Why, truly, Bishop Ken- 
rick tells us that, if he does, it is the female's duty to re- 
port him to the Inquisition, or, if there is none in that 
part of the world, to the bishop, and most severe punish- 
ments shall be inflicted on him. We shall speak of this 
soon. - But first let us notice another case. 

It is a case of solicitation under pretext of confession. 
Kenrick, p. 237, vol. iii. : " Si autem ilk suggesserit ei 
renueiiti ohfamce periculum, ut eum prcetextu confessionis ac- 
cerseret, denuntiandus foret, quippe qui r ever a prcetextu confes- 
sionis solicitavit — ' If a priest suggests to a female re- 
fusing to comply with his desires, on account of exposing 
her reputation to peril, that she should send for him un- 
der a pretext of desiring to confess to him, he is to be 
regarded as soliciting under pretext of confession.' " 
What power of seduction does this statement develop in 
the system ! what facts does it imply ! 

Now, compare with this legislation of the Romish pon- 
tiff the following statements from a French priest of whom 
I shall soon speak. They reveal the state of society 
which the legislation implies : — 

^ " There are no means which their cummig does not in- 
vent to meet with their victims. If the husband is jeal- 
ous and suspicious, his wife, upon the advice of the curate, 
will feign to be sick ; and it is the duty of a priest to 



BISHOP KENRICK'S DEFENCE. 



189 



visit often (every day if possible) liis sick parishioners. 
He will remain alone with her, to speak about spiritual 
matters in appearance or to confess her.'' 

Take another case from the same author, still further 
illustrating the immense power of seduction given by the , 
system of the confessional to the Romish priesthood : — 

By this way, through their dark ministry, they have 
an immense power upon the minds of women ; for they at- 
tack only those whose disposition they have long studied 
in confession. The reader can have some just idea of 
this power from this single fact, of which I know the jjer- 
sonage, because it became public. A priest in a parish not 
far from mine laid his snares for a young married woman 
who had the reputation of piety because she attended 
mass every morning. He, through his diabolical argu- 
ments, won her and triumphed over all her scruples. She 
went to him almost every morning in the vestry before 
the bell rung to call the people to the mass. He then 
confessed and absolved her, and she received the Lord's 
supper at his mass. The good people said, admiring her 
daily communion, ' How pious is this young wife ! She 
partakes of the sacrament every day ; she is doubtless a 
saint.' " 

Now, it is in vain to reply to such facts that all systems 
are liable to abuse ; for the system of the celibacy of 
the clergy and of the confessional, taken together, is as 
exactly fitted to produce such results as if it was 
framed for it. What mockery, then^ to pretend to check 
its operation by requiring females to report to the Inqui- 
sition those priests who solicit them, and denouncing se- 
vere punishments on the guilty solicitors ! All such legis- 
lation will ever be in practice a dead letter. The diffi- 
culties in the way of its execution are insurmountable. 
Notice a few facts. 

No priest can be convicted and punished on the testi- 



190 THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED. 



mony of one witness. Listen to Bisliop Kenrick : " JVemo 
dainnaiidus est gravis simis illis pcenis oh unius denunciationem 
— ' No one is to be condemned to those most severe pun- 
ishments on the accusation of one witness.' " Does the 
female run no risk if she fails of proving her charge ? 

Hear the bishop again : " Calumniam autem impadam 
sacerdotibus innoxiis ulcisci voluit — 'It is the pleasure 
of the pope that false charges against innocent priests 
shall subject the accuser to deserved retribution.' " 

How easy, then, is it for a wily priest so to conduct his 
solicitations that no single female shall ever dare to 
make the charge ! and how unequal the conflict between 
a defenceless female and a crafty priest in a case where 
every instinct of self-preservation calls on him to destroy 
her character in order to save his own ! 

But suppose the facts so notorious that witnesses 
enough could be produced to prove the charges ; will the 
laws be executed then? Ask Seville, When the terrors 
of the Inquisition were put forth to compel females to 
speak the truth, the fair informers, according to Gonsal- 
vus, were so numerous that all the inquisitors and twenty 
notaries were insufficient in thirty days to take their 
depositions. Thirty additional days were needed three 
times in succession. Finally the multitude of criminals, 
the jealousy of husbands, the odium fast coming on auric- 
ular confession and the Popish priesthood caused the In- 
quisition to quash the prosecution and to consign the 
depositions to oblivion. 



CHAPTER YIII. 



TESTIMONY OF CATHOLIC PRIESTS. 

We have taken some notice of the efforts of Bisliop 
Kenrick to gloss over tke abominations of the system of 
auricular confession to an unmarried priesthood. All the 
laws of cause and effect must be abolished if such a sys- 
tem does not produce deep moral corruption. The attempt 
in Spain, through the Inquisition, to stop seduction through 
the confessional failed simply because the number of ec- 
clesiastics involved was so great that to proceed involved 
the ruin of the clergy. The facts have been given in a 
preceding chapter ; and to it we refer our readers. We 
have also produced some astounding evidence to the same 
effect from Bishop Kenrick himself. To this we will add 
the testimony of a French priest fully and practically ac- 
quainted with the system, for whose character and integ- 
rity Professor Morse, of New York, is voucher, under 
whose sanction the statements were published. Of him 
he says, — 

" The question will naturally be asked, ' Why does the 
author conceal his name ? ' Reasons of prudence in con- 
sulting the safety of dear relatives, all Catholics in the 
south part of France, where they are surrounded by a 
bigoted, enslaved, and most vindictive Roman Catholic 
population, (as any one acquainted with the state of that 
part of France well knows,) oblige the considerate and 
4ruly amiable author to preserve for the present a strict 



192 



THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED. 



incognito. His friends would suffer on his account the 
most painful proscription. Little do we conceive the dan- 
gers and trials, the hate and persecutions, which in our 
own times await not merely the convert himself from Po- 
pery in countries where it is dominant, but which pursue 
even the innocent relatives of the apostate heretic as he is 
called, although they remain stanch in their attachment 
to their sect. ould they who inconsiderately affirm that 
Popery has changed its persecuting character in modern 
times but give a moderate share of attention in ascertain- 
ing the facts which are every day occurring to prove its 
true spirit, they would no longer be deceived, but watch 
with the greater jealousy all the movements and encroach- 
ments of this necessarily intolerant sect. 

" The public may rest assured that the author is what 
he professes to be. He is no fictitious character. He is 
personally known, not alone to me, but to several gentle- 
men whose names and standing are well known to the 
community. His testimonials whicli he showed me are of 
the highest character ; and he was, when in France, under 
the patronage of a French nobleman distinguished for his 
liberality and philanthropy, whose name is associated in 
Paris with plans of the most enlarged benevolence, whose 
time and immense wealth are freely employed in tlic en- 
couragement of industry, religion, and literature among 
the French people, but whose name, for reasons obvious 
to all, cannot now be given to the public." 

His statements are a striking commentary on the great 
, development in Spain. There is in them an inherent veri- 
similitude. They reveal the course of events that dis- 
closed itself in those notorious results. The Catholic 
priest says of himself, also, that he fell in love with one 
of his flock, but concealed his passion, and after his con- 
version fled to this country. We give his statement : — 

X " It is not my intention to repeat here all the accusa- 
tions so justly made against Catholic priests, but only to 

^ reveal, to publish in the light, perhaps for the first time, 
how they defraud the poor deluded people who trust to 



TESTIMONY OF CATHOLIC PRIESTS. 



193 



them. I am bold to say aloud, that Protci^tants have noth- 
ing- yet upon this important matter so precise as what I am 
about to say. I have confessed priests and laymen of 
every description, a bishop (once,) superiors, curates, per- 
sons high and low, women, girls, boys. I am therefore 
fitted to speak of the confessional. 

" The confession of men is a matter of high importance 
in political matters, to impress their minds with slavish 
ideas ; but, not to repeat what I have already stated on^ 
this subject in my discourse, I refer the reader to it. As 
for other matters, confessors endeavor to give a high opin- 
ion of their own holiness to fathers and husbands, that 
they may be induced to send to the confessional, without 
any fear, their waves and daughters; because, doubtless, ' 
should fathers and husbands know what passes at the con- 
fession box between the holy man and their wives and 
daughters, they never would permit them again to go to 
those schools of vice. But priests command most careful- 
ly to women never to speak of their confession to men, 
and they inquire severally about that in every confession. 

" The confession of the female sex is the great triumph, 
the most splendid theatre, of priests. Here is completed 
the work which is but begun through all their intercourse 
with women ; for all our relations with them begin from 
their birth and continue till their death. In their baptism 
w^e sprinkle their heads with holy water, at their death their 
grave ; and the space comprised between those two epochs 
is filled by a thousand ecclesiastical duties. The more I 
think of this matter, the more I remember this sentence : 
' Priests, in taking the vows of renouncing marriage, en- 
gage themselves to take the wdves of others.' 

"So soon as the first light of reason has appeared in 
their tender minds, we have girls at our confessional ; and 
here, with all the resources of cunning and lessons of the- 
ology, we sow the seeds of our future power in their hearts, 
the foundation of our future designs. Those young girls 
from seven years of age come and kneel with all the inno- 
cence, the purity, the inexperience of childhood, beautiful 
as the lilies of the valley of which our Savior speaks in the 
gospel ; they come, sent by their mothers, by the orders of 
the priest, who watches his prov with eager eves ; thev 
IT ' 



194 



THE PAPAL CONSPIllACY EXPOSED. 



come with all the fear and respect of their age for the man 
of God. He, seeing: in them the future tool of his passions, 
fills their minds with prejudices, repeats to them that he is 
the minister of Heaven, that they must look to him, revere 
him, almost worship him as a god ; he accustoms their 
mind to obey him absolutely and blindly, to believe him 
infallible — in short, a divine oracle. Thus he gives to 
their thoughts the direction he pleases ; he prepares his 
batteries ; he informs them upon subjects which they ought 
never to know. At first they do not understand those les- 
sons at so early an age ; but by and by they bear their fruit 
when developed by time. Thus confessors instruct those 
girls from seven, or even six, years of age ; for the youngest 
are the best. At ten years old they come to the catechism. 
In those long instructions he explains diffusely, three or 
four times a week, the vileness and filthiness in that shame- 
ful book, which they learn by heart. As a preparation to 
the Lord's supper at the end of their year of catechism, 
he confesses them much oftener than usual ; they make a 
general review of their whole life. When he gives* them 
the absolution which purifies their conscience and recon- 
ciles them to God he reveals to their mind what they owe 
to their confessor for such a favor. In the afternoon of 
this same day, at one of the most gorgeous ceremonies of 
the Catholic church, the general conununion of boys, the 
confessor, at the renovation of the vows of baptism, strict- 
ly commands them not to neglect the holy -confession, for 
if they do they will be lost. Thus young girls, well in- 
doctrinated and bound to their confessor, are not heedless 
enough to abandon his orders ; they come again to the 
confessional, through custom and habit, with the same sim- 
plicity, and entertaining the same respect and fear of their 
spiritual father, as in their childhood ; they kneel many 
times in the vestry, without the confessional, before a man 
inflamed with passions — a man, perhaps, who has for a long 
time fought against himself, and who yet bears evil in his 
heart ; before a man, perhaps, who has long since prepared 
his work, and now is ready to profit by it ; before a man 
honest and pure, perhaps, at first, but who, being a man, a 
son of Adam, may not be able to resist the temptation. 
And I ask, Is it possible, humanly speaking, for him, a 



TESTIMONY OF CATHOLIC PRIESTS, 



105 



priest, to remain pure, when at twenty-five or thirty years 
of age he is shut either in the vestry or in the confessional 
with a young' woman who reveals to him the secrets of her 
heart as she knows them herself, according to our rules, so 
that he, the spiritual physician, may be able to see and to 
judge — with a woman who, being herself human, and not 
an angel, speaks for hours to a young priest of her temp- 
tations, her passions, her secret thoughts, cfcc, and convers- 
ing of matters which I cannot reveal here, — I say, is it 
possible for human virtue to keep itself pure, not only for 
a day, a week, a month, but during vears and for the whole 
life ? 

" Let not a Catholic say to me that these are the reason- 
ings of a corrupt man, of a bad priest ; let him not say that 
God can do what man cannot, and other similar reasons 
which, I know it ivell, priests always give to explain their 
pretended virtue. Those reasons a common Catholic may 
l3e satisfied with ; but I, a priest, cannot be. No ; I can- 
not ; I know too well the matter ; and I answer, first, that 
I was no more inclined to evil, nor more liable to yield to 
temptation, than others ; (for God knows that I never se- 
duced any one through my ministry.) I was only a man 
like others, designed by the Creator for connubial happi- 
ness according to his vrord itself: 'It is not good for man 
to be alone ; I will make a helpmeet for him ; ' designed, I 
say, for a union intended by the all-wise and benevolent 
Creator. Can the laws of Popery prevail over the wis- 
dom of the Almighty? Let not a Catholic say that a 
priest in this situation is helped by the special grace of 
God ; for I answer, by the words of Christ himself, ' Who- 
soever loves danger, he shall perish in it.' And if God 
has promised his grace, it is not granted in an unnatural, 
immoral situation, directly against his institution. 

"As soon as the young girl, for I speak peculiarly of 
their confession, enters the confessional, ' Bless me, father,' 
siie says, kneeling and crossing herself, ' for I have sinned ; ' 
and the priest mumbles, Dominus sit in ore tuo et in corde, 
tuo lU conjitearis omnia peccata tua — 'The Lord be in your 
heart and lips, that you may confess all your sins.' If she 
is an ugly, common country girl or woman she is soon de- 
spatched ;^but, on the contrary, if she is pretty and fair, 



196 



THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED. 



the holy father puts himself at ease ; he examines her in the 
most secret recesses of her soul ; he unfolds her mind in 
every sense, in every manner, upon every matter. This is 
the way which theologw recommends us to follow in our 
interrogations: 'Daughter, have you had bad thoughts?' 
' On what subject ? How often ? ' &c. ' Have you liad bad 
desires? What desires?' 'Have you committed bad ac- 
tions? With whom ? What actions ?' &c. I am obliged 
to stop. Many times the poor ashamed girl does not dare 
answer the question's, they are so indecent. In that case 
the holy man, ceasing his interrogations, says to her, 'Lis- 
ten, daughter, to the true doctrine of the church ; you must 
confess the truth, all the truth, to your spiritual father. 
Do you know that I am in the place of God — that you 
cannot deceive him? Speak, then ; reveal your heart to 
me as God knows it ; you will be very glad when you will 
have discharged this burden from your mind. Will you 
not ? ' ' Yes.' ' Begin ; 1 will help you ; ' and then begins 
such a diabolical explanation as is not to be found but in 
houses of infamy, I suppose, or in our theological books. 
This is so well known that I have often heard of wicked 
young men saying to each other, ' Come, let us go to con- 
fession, and the curate will teach us a great many corrupt 
things which we never knew ; ' and many young girls have 
told me in confession, that, in order to become acquainted 
with details on those matters pleasing to their corrupt na- 
ture, they went purposely to the confessional to speak about 
it to their spiritual father. Sometimes I have heard the 
confession of young girls not above sixteen years of age, 
who explained to me such disgusting things with a pre- 
cision, a propriety (or rather impropriety) of terms, that, 
when I asked them where they had gathered all this 
strange learning, they seemed as much astonished at my 
question as I was at their confession, and said to me, 
' Why, father, our former confessor taught us all this, and 
commanded us never to omit these details, otherwise we 
should be damned.' 1 replied to them, '1 pray you never 
use such terms again ; they are unworthy of a Christian 
mouth ; you ha^■e misunderstood your confessor.' I learned 
afterwards that these misguided persons left my confes- 
sional because, they said, I was an ignoi-aot confessor, 



TESTIMONY OF CATHOLIC PRIESTS. 



197 



who did not confess like others, and who did 7iot cause them to 
say all. 

"After so many instructions the young girl is well in- 
doctrinated, well fitted to answer either the questions or 
the purposes of the priest. This poison diffused in her 
heart soon infects her whole mind and destroys her purity. 
It is precisely at such a point of time that her cruel foe 
waits for her. When he sees that she is made vicious and 
corrupt by the teachings of the confessional he is sure of 
his success." 

To this statement Professor Morse adds the following 
remarks : — 

" The modes by which the priest persuades his victim 
that she is without sin in doing whatever he commands, 
since he is responsible, and since he can absolve her from 
it, and other means of deceiving at the confessional, are 
then too graphically related to be publicly told ; and I 
have thought it best, with the consent of the author, to 
suppress all but the closing facts." 

Now, let it be considered that I have shown that from 
Bishop Kenrick himself evidence can be derived going to 
confirm and substantiate all the statements of this French 
priest. If these things are so, then it' becomes Americans 
to look well to this matter. 

Let no one trust the efiicacy of Papal prohibitory laws. 
The whole system scatters broadcast the seeds of the 
highest temptation known to man in the minds of the 
whole priesthood, and then waters those seeds day and 
night ; and then, as if in solemn mockery, or in bitter de- 
rision of the interests of the human race, the pope issues 
his bull and forbids them to spring up and grow. 

If the human mind had not been debased, brutalized, and 
crushed by the system, it would be incredible that it could 
have been endured from generation to generation. If the 
whole skill of earth and hell had been put forth to devise 
IT* 



198 



THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED. 



a system designed first to corrupt the clerg-y, and then, 
through them, human society, a better devised and more 
effectual one could not have been found. Hence a con- 
verted French priest has well said, This intercourse of 
young girls and young unmarried priests is the fulness of 
immorality." And the following account which he gives 
-jof the corruption of the French clergy is no less philo- 
sophical than true. It also exactly agrees with the state- 
ments of Blanco White. 

" Catholic or Protestant writers Vvdiodiave^spoken of the 
corruption of the Roman clergy, who have described its 
matchless wickedness, have not shown its cause. They 
saw only the effect, without tracing it up to its source. I 
will try to supply their silence. I have' read a certain 
number of those books against a body to which I be- 
longed, — a body which I know as well as it is possible 
for one to know it, — and I can say that its whole degra- 
dation is imknown. Careful of saying nothing that can 
shock the reader, I will reveal only what is necessary to 
unveil those 'anointed of the Lord,' but nothing to offend 
the eyes. I shall surprise Protestants, doubtless, by say- 
ing that, in France, the immense majority of yoking men in 
cur seminaries are not corrupted, and many of them are vir- 
tuous. It is nevertheless true. They are ignorant, super- 
stitious, fanatical, given up to their superstitious practices, 
to theology, &c., but, I declare it, not at all vicious. That 
may be conceded, although in appearance in contradiction 
to their indecent studies ; for' they are taught that it is 
necessary to learn all these in order to be able to fulfil 
their duty ; and, to hear confession in all its extent, it is 
necessary to know all human perversity. Ida not give a 
judgment on these reasons ; be that as it may, our superiors 
endeavor to inspire us, in those recitations, with a great dis- 
like of such crimes ; and I can affirm: that it is very pain- 
ful to the natural sense of -decency in any man to bo 
obliged, as we are, to be familiar with such books. 

" This is the true picture upon this matter of the semi- 
naries—that I know; and 1 am indifferent vrhether it 
a^rrees or not with pictures drawn by others. 



TESTIMONY OF CATHOLIC PRIESTS. 



199 



"The story of the corruption of the cler^^y begins only 
Tvlien they are out of the seminary. Those young men are 
sent into a parish in the quality of curates, or vicars. In 
the beginning they fulfil their duties with great care, and 
for some time remain faithful to their vows. Many told 
this to me aftir their fall ; and I have seen it myself, ex- 
cept in a few exceptions. But by and by they open as- 
tonished eyes. Restored to freedom, after ten or twelve 
years of thraldom in a college, or seminary, they become 
quite different men : gradually they forget their vow. 
' 0,' said a young priest to me, with tears in his eyes, after 
having four or five years discharged the duties of his sta- 
tion, ' God only knows what I have suffered during this 
time ! and if I have fallen, it is not without fighting. Had 
I been allowed to choose a wife — as it is the law of God, 
who destines man to marriage, whatever our rules teach 
to the contrary — I should have remained virtuous ; I 
should have been the happiest man in the world ; I should 

be a good, a holy priest; while now I am 0, 1 am 

ashamed of myself ! ' 

This is really the sad history of all their falls ; for, let 
us be just, what can become of a young priest of twenty- 
five years of age, confined in the lonely wilderness of a 
country parish, in a village where he has only the society 
of his sacristan and of his servant, because all his parish- 
ioners being but coarse peasants, especially in the south and 
in the west, where scarcely any know how to read, are un- 
able to afford any comfort to his solitude? His duty oc- 
cupies him but little save on the Sunday ; and during the 
whole week, after his short mass and some confession of 
women, he is reduced to ask himself, ' What shall 1 do?' 
Study has few, if any, charms for him, because he is forbid- 
den to read or study precisely those matters which enter- 
tain the intellect. He is allowed only to peruse theology 
— always Dens, Gomez, Rodriguez, the Life of Saints, by 
Godescar. If he should obtain some other books, the 
- bishop, in his episcopal visit, would chide him severely, 
and call him a worldly priest. Our great poet Racine, 
so pure, so chaste, is scarcely tolerated, and many bishops 
do not allow him in the libraries of their priests. The 
y-oung man, before his profession, had imagined and antici- 



200 



THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED. 



pated a pleasant existence in the ecclesiastical state, and 
he finds but privations, ennui, disgust. His passions are 
also xaised ; the demon of bad thoughts takes possession 
of him. Moreover, liis ministry puts him in so many cir- 
cumstances with ignorant young countrywomen, into whose 
most secret thoug-hts he is obliged to enter, that his virtue 
receives many shocks. And can it be otherwise when a 
man has those intimate and continual relations required 
of the Catholic priest with women ? No ; it would be 
unreasonable, to expect from human nature more than it is 
able to do, to put it on too difficult a trial. Such is, how- 
ever, the situation of every Catholic priest. 

" I do not say all this to veil or excuse the crimes, the 
natural result of this institution ; but I think I am bound 
to give the matter of fact as it is. Sometimes the resist- 
ance is firm, the struggle long ; but at length this martyr 
of fanaticism, this victim of his system and of his superi- 
ors, abandons his vow through despair, shuts his eyes, and 
throws himself into the slough of passions. This is the end 
of almost all priests. In the beginning their consciences 
reproach them bitterly ; they try again to be faithful ; they 
flutter, fall, reform again, go on, fall again, and at length, to 
finish this horrible struggle, remain in vice. . Let us add 
to this sad catalogue the temptations against their faith 
and doctrines, which end with many in complete atheism, 
into which they fall by the excess of degradation, temp- 
tations to atheism in those who reason, from the impossi- 
bility of reconciling their faith with reason." 

What language of detestation can be found sufficiently 
strong for such a system ? And yet of this system has 
Bishop Kenrick come forward as the advocate. 



BLANCO WHITE. 

In perfect accordance with this testimony of the French 
priest is that of Blanco White, once an eminent ecclesiastic 
in the Spanish church. He clearly proves that there had 



TESTIMONY OF CATHOLIC PRIESTS. 



201 



been there no improvement since the disclosures of the 
century after the reformation. He says, — 

" I cannot think of the wanderings of the friends of my 
youth without heartrending pain. One now no more, 
whose talents raised him to one of the highest dignities 
of tlie church of Spain, was for many years a model of 
Cliristian purity. When, by the powerful influence of his 
mind and the warmth of his devotion, this man had drawn 
many into the clerical and the religious life, (my youngest 
sister among the latter,) he sunk at once into the grossest 
and most daring profligacy. I heard him boast that the 
night before the solemn procession of Corpus C/iristi, 
where he appeared nearly at the head of his chapter, one 
of tico children had been born, which his two concubines 
brought to light within a few days of each other. Such, 
more or less, has been the fate of my early friends, whose 
minds and hearts were much above the common standard 
of the Spanish clergy. Yv^hat, then, need I say of the vul- 
gar crowd of priests, who, coming, as the Spanish phrase 
has it, from cuarse swaddling clothes, and raised by ordina- 
tion to a rank of life for which they have not been pre- 
pared, mingle vice and superstition, grossness of feeling 
and pride of office, in their character ? I have known the 
best among them ; I have heard their confessions ; I have 
heard the confessions of young persons of both sexes who 
fell under the influence of their suggestions and example ; 
and I do declare that nothing can be more dangerous to 
youthful virtue than their company. I have seen the most 
promising men of my university obtain country vicarages 
with characters unimpeached and hearts overflowing with 
hopes of usefulness. A virtuous wife would have conflrmed 
and strengthened their purposes ; but they were to live a 
life of angels in celibacy. They were, however, men, and 
tJieir duties connected them with beings of no higher de- 
scription. Young women knelt before them in all the 
intinuicy and o[)enness of confession. A solitary home 
made them go abroad in search of social converse. Love, 
long resisted, seized them at length like madness. Two 
i knew who died insane. Hundreds might be found who 
avoid that fate by a life of settled systematic vice." 



202 THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED. 



CRUELTY OF ROMANISM. 

Nowhere does the cruelty of Romanism appear so in- 
tense as in the case of the noblest and most sincere minds 
of men and women who are drawn into the priesthood or 
into nunneries with the false idea that they are to find 
themselves surrounded by holy influences. How bitter 
their disappointment ! Some long resist temptation by a 
kind of living martyrdom ; and of these some become in- 
sane. The fate of many a poor deceived nun will never be 
known in all its horrors till the revelations of the judg- 
ment day. Whatever screams are heard, from whatever 
cause, as was the case in the nunnery at Baltimore, no 
Protestant can enter. And, if any victim escapes, she is, 
of course, slandered and declared insane. 

Few priests have the nobility and strength of character 
of the French priest. His experience was this, as given 
by himself : — ■ - 

, " An assiduous reading of pious books, of the Holy Bible, 
were of great use to me. in confession, and gave me the 
reputation of an able confessor. Soon, notwithstanding, 
or I ought rather to say because of my youth, I became 
a la mode — all the fashion — among devotees. In France 
there is a ' mode,' or fashion, for every thing, for confess- 
ors as well as for coats or hats. My downcast eyes, my 
timidity and piety in saying mass, obtained for me the 
reputation of a pious priest. Consequently many people 
came to hear my sermons — applied to me for my advice in 
confession or my prayers in the mass. I was well nigh 
believing myself a powerful saint, a heavenly being. 
Alas ! alas ! -I was to be recall-ed from this height to which 
my pride had raised me, to my native earth. 

" My heart, in spite of my whole pretended holiness, was 
like mountains covered with enormous heaps of snow, 
where a single breath is often sufficient to bring down the 
terrible avalanche. 



TESTIMOXr OF CATHOLIC PRIESTS. 



203 



" One day a young lady came to the vestry and asked me 
if I would confess her. T complied with her request. 
I confessed her often ; for she was pious, and received the 
Lord's supper at least twice a "week. She told me the 
reason why she had changed her former confessor — a 
reason vrhich it is not necessary here to tell. In the in- 
timate relation of confessor and penitent, in those repeated 
conversations in which a young female of nineteen opens 
her heart every week, in every matter and the most secret 
thoughts, to a young man of twenty-seven who feels and 
laments his loneliness, it was not difhcult to foresee what 
would naturally happen. She spoke to me so openly, so 
candidly, her confession displayed so fair a character, 
such artlessness, so much innocence, that by and by, with- 
out any intention or reflection, but by a natural course of 
things, my heart was caught, and I fell in love with her. 
I took heed not to give her the least hint of it, because it 
was worse than useless, since I was prevented from being 
married by my vow, by ecclesiastic rules, and also by the 
laws of the state. I thought not an instant of abusing my 
ministry on her account ; which, however, would have been 
the easiest thing in the world. It remained, then, for me 
but to smother this involuntary love. xLt first I tried to 
believe it only the effect of my imagination too much 
kindled. But vain illusion ! The more I endeavored to 
trample down this feeling, the more I strengthened it ; and 
it increased every day. My virtue, indeed, could prevent 
mo from giving my consent, but it could not prevent my 
suffering its effects — the mental agony of the conflict. 
Ere long I saw the inutility of my exertions against it ; 
and I thought I could not do better than to resign myself 
to the will of God, in the hope that he would doubtless 
help me in my struggles, since I fought for his glory, his 
church, and my vows. 

" My first thought, of course, was of removing the dan- 
ger by refusing any longer to confess her — by giving up 
the direction of her soul, so perilous was it to mine own. 
At first, in the next confession, I wished to sound her on 
this subject, alleging for that purpose some Jesuitical and 
apparent reason ; lor my superiors had taught me never 
to be at a loss for pretexts. She ansv/ered to me, ' Fa- 



204 



THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED. 



thcr, I gave you my wliole confidence, T opened to you 
my heart, I unveiled to you my most secret thoughts with 
as much candor as if I was but ten years old, that you 
might direct me better. You know me as well as I know 
myself. I do not ask the reasons why you propose to me 
to exchange you for another. But, if you deny me your 
ministry, I must renounce the confession altogether ; for 
you know yourself why I left my former confessor ; and 
you will not oblige me to go back to him, neither to Mr. 
D., nor to Mr. L.' 

" I could not tell her the true reason of my conduct, for 
my sake and for her own. On the other side I was very 
superstitious, believing, heartily, confession quite necessary 
to the salvation of the soul. Could I then, with my ideas 
of confession, assent to the loss of her soul ? I remem- 
bered that a true priest ought ever to expose his own 
salvation for the sake of others ; and consequently the 
design of sending her to another seemed a horrible tempta- 
tion of the devil. However, in a matter of so great impor- 
tance I feared to direct myself ; and as in the seminary I 
had been told a hundred times that our confessor ought to 
rule all our business, I went to him ; I looked to him as to ~ 
my father and the representative of God ; for I practised 
what I taught others — viz., that the confessor is the vice- 
gerent of G-od. He listened to my singular declaration 
and to my purpose of renouncing her confession if he 
thought best. He laughed at me ; and, notwithstanding 
all my explanations, he could not, or would not, understand 
me, and at length told me that my love for her was far 
from being a reason of depriving her of my ministry. 

" There then remained no doubt in my own mind ; and I 
thought that God himself Imd ordered it so. But, to di- 
minish the danger, 1 resolved to avoid any intercourse 
with* her except in the confessional ; and henceforth I 
ceased to pay any visit to her family, where I went before, 
oftentimes to evening parties, for fear of seeing her and 
increasing my fatal attachment ; for the Holy Bible says, 
Quisquis amat 'periculura in iilo peribit — ' Whosoever loves 
danger shall perish in it.' Her family, astonished at my 
sudden desertion, and especially her mother, asked me 
why I had deserted their house — if they had olfended me. 



TESTIMONY OP CATHOLIC PRIESTS. 



205 



Tlianlvs to my snbterfno-es, I avoided the question ; and 
thus I, who would have found my joy, my happiness, in this 
house, banished myself from the family where all the de- 
sires of my heart carried me. 

" In speaking of what I suffered in repressing my feel- 
ings, I shall be scarcely, if at all, understood by men 
who put their hearts in open air, who act unreservedly, 
who obey the just dictates of Nature instead of having 
been inured to despise them and trample upon them — by 
men to whom the lake of great emotions is always drained, 
because they do not subvert the sacred institutions of their 
Creator. These men know not with what violence this 
sea of human passion ferments, gushes out, when every 
issue is denied to it ; how it increases, swells, overflows, 
bursts the heart, till it has torn away its bounds and dug 
for itself a channel." 

He proceeds to state how he had recourse to the heaviest 
mortifications, even destroying his health, and then sought 
for death in attending on the victims of a pestilential dis- 
ease ; how by degrees he came to a knowledge of the licen- 
tious and mercenary character of the clergy and was rid- 
iculed for his scrupulous conscientiousness ; how he was 
tempted to infidelity and atheism ; how by the Bible he 
was brought truly to know God and spiritual religion ; and, 
finally, how he escaped to this country without disclosing 
his feelings to the object of his afl'ection. 

I rejoice to believe that even in Papal countries there 
are some such in all ages whom the cruel system does not 
succeed in corrupting, but mourn to think how few. 
18 



CHAPTER IX. 



THE llESULT. 

To conclude, it must now be added that there is no reason 
to doubt that the intelligent and leading managers of the 
Romish corporation, as was the case with ^neas Sylvius 
and John Gerson, know this to be the real state of the 
case, and have adapted their policy to the expectation of 
its permanent continuance. There is no reason to regard 
them as sincerely deluded, as were the early originators 
of the doctrine of celibacy. It is no doubt true that the 
celibacy of the clergy was introduced early into the 
church by men who, under the influence of prevailing 
errors, supposed it essential to the highest degree of holi- 
ness. Moreover for a time it was probably maintained 
in innocence and sincerity, notwithstanding it began im- 
mediately to develop its corrupting influences, on the 
ground that these were but the abuses of a good thing. 

But the time in which this has been innocently possible 
has long since passed away. 'So constant, so uniform, so 
fearful is the testimony of experience that I do not hesi- 
tate to say that the more intelligent part of the Romish cor- 
poration, or at least those who stand nearest to the centre 
of power, know perfectly well that all that has been 
stated by me and others on this subject is no exaggera- 
tion. Nay, they well know that it falls short of the truth, 

(206) 



THE RESULT. 



207 



and look T^ith contempt upon the easy simplicity of those 
Protestants who are duped by their impudent representa- 
tions of the holiness of the priesthood. 

If, then, any one should ask, How do they look on the 
matter ? I reply, They expect that, in all communities where 
their system has the ascendency, the great majority of the 
clergy of all grades will not be continent ; and they have 
adjusted their morals so as to accord with this state of 
things. 

I desire to be distinctly understood. I do not mean by 
this that they cease to teach the superior sanctity of celi- 
bacy and continence, or to claim for their church superior 
sanctity on this ground, or to represent the Protestant 
clergy who have wives as sensual and unholy. All this is 
necessary to preserve appearances, and is perfectly well 
understood among the knowing ones. Those who have 
just come from the very depths of pollution and sensual- 
ism do not at all hesitate to speak thus. 

If any say that this implies an inconceivable degree of 
baseness, and hypocrisy, and unprincipled deceit, I answer, 
It is DO more than has notoriously existed in many of those 
who stand at the very head of the system — that is, the 
popes. Many of them have been known to be the most 
licentious wretches that have ever burdened this earth ; 
and yet in all their bulls they assume the character of 
eminent saints, the peculiar favorites of the Most High. 
For example. Innocent VIII., whose bull I have quoted, in 
v.'hich he sanctions all manner of perfidy towards the poor 
and holy Waldenses, led a most profligate life. It is a 
matter of dispute how many illegitimate children he had — 
Onuphrius stating in general that he had several, Marullus 
fixing the number at sixteen. Certainly, although a num- 
ber of them died, two survived his accession to the Papacy, 
and were advantageously married and highly promoted 



208 



THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED. 



and enriched by him. Indeed it is notorious that the same 
things were done by maby other popes, so that they even 
ceased to excite surprise. Yet all these popes addressed 
the church and the world as if they were the very choicest 
saints of God, even when they were rallying their myr- 
' midons perfidiously to massacre the purest saints on earth. 
What they mean by holiness we can understand when we 
recollect that they call such butcheries " a holy work," and 
are not at all troubled by the loathsome pollution of such 
lives. 

Such are the men whom the pen of inspiration has viv- 
idly and indignantly described as " speaking lies in hypoc- 
risy, having their consciences seared as with a hot ironJ^ But 
the system of the Romish church is exactly adapted to 
transform her clergy into such men, and to finish the work 
by making them infidels or atheists. 

If any simple and charitable souls, or any under the 
influence of affected candor and liberality, shall call this 
language harsh and uncharitable, I will only ask of them 
for themselves to read the testimony of the Roman Cath- 
olic councils and historians in the ages preceding the 
reformation, when Protestantism was unknown. I defy 
any man even to imagine a state of things so bad as is 
. there described and proved by evidence of the most in- 
controvertible kind. 

And yet, even after the reformation, in the council of 
Trent, when such facts were urged on the Papal corpora- 
tion by Roman Catholic rulers as a reason for repealing 
the law of celibacy, they refused merely on grounds of 
Papal policy. On this point Edgar states the following 
impressive facts : — - 

"Albert, Duke of Bavaria, in 1562, by Augustine, his 
ambassador, depicted in glowing colors, before the council 
of Trent, the licentiousness of the German priesthood. 



THE IIKSULT. 



209 



Tlie contagion of here?}', the ambassador said, had, on ac- 
count of sacerdotal profligacy, pervaded the people of 
Bavaria even to the nobility. A recital of clerical crim- 
inality would wound the ear of chastity. Debauchery had 
covered the ecclesiastics with infamy. A hundred priests, 
so general was the contagion, could hardly muster three 
or four who obeyed the injunctions of chastity. The 
French applauded the ambassador's speech. The council 
also, by its promoter, joined in the French eulogy, and 
styled the Duke of Bavaria the bulwark of the popedom. 

"The Emperor Ferdinand, though without success, ap- 
plied to the pope, in 1564:, for a repeal of the laws against 
sacerdotal matrimony. Maximilian also, with many of 
the German princes, importuned Pius TV. for the same 
purpose. The reason urged by the emperor was the 
profligacy of the priesthood. His majesty declared that 
among many of the clergy scarcely one could be found 
who lived in chastity. All, with hardly an exception, 
were public fornicators, to the greatest danger of souls 
and scandal of the people. A repeal of clerical celibacy, 
Maximilian stated, would gratify the populace of Bavaria, 
Bohemia, Silesia, Moravia, Austria, Carinthia, Carniola, 
and Hungary. All these vast regions would have rejoiced 
in the restoration of marriage among the clergy. 

The emperor's application was supported by the Popish 
priesthood of Germany. These, in maintenance of their 
petition, alleged various reasons. The frailty of man ; 
the difficulty of abstinence ; the strength of the passion 
that prompts to marriage ; the permission of clerical wed- 
lock by the Old and New Testaments under the Jewish 
and Christian dispensations ; its use, w4th few exceptions, 
by the apostles ; the instructions of Dionysius to Piny- 
tus ; the decision of the Nicene council, suggested by 
Paphnutius ; the usage of the Greeks and Latins in the 
east and west till the popedom of Calixtus, — all these 
arguments the German ecclesiastics urged for the lawful- 
ness of sacerdotal matrimony. x\. second reason the Ger- 
mans deduced from clerical profligacy. Fifty priests, 
these churchmen confessed, could with difliculty afford one 
who was not a notorious fornicator, to the oft'ence of the 
people and the injury of piety. Sacerdotal logic and 
18* 



210 ■ THE Papal conspiracy exposed. 

learning, however, were unavailing when weighed against 
pontifical policy and ecclesiastical utility." 

If we would understand what this ecclesiastical utility 
is, attend to the Eomish theory as reported by Edgar : — 

" Cardinal Rodolf, arguing in a Roman consistory in 
favor of clerical celil3acy, affirmed that the priesthood, if 
allowed to marry, would transfer their attachment from 
the pope to their family and prince ; and this would tend 
to the injury of the ecclesiastical community. The holy 
see, the cardinal alleged, would, by this means, be soon 
limited to the Roman city. The Transalpine party in the 
council of Trent used the same argument. The introduc- 
tion of priestly matrimony, this faction urged, would sever 
the clergy from their close dependence on the popedom 
and turn their affections to their family, and consequently 
to their king and country. Marriage connects men with 
their sovereign and with the land of their nativity. Cel- 
ibacy, on the contrary, transfers the attention of the clergy 
from his majesty and the state to his holiness and the 
church. The man who has a wife and children is bound 
by conjugal and paternal attachment to his country, and 
feels the warmest glow of parental love, mingled with the 
flame of patriotism. His interests and affections are in- 
twined with the honor and prosperity of his native land ; 
and this, in consequence, he will prefer to the aggrandize- 
ment of the Romish hierarchy or the grandeur of the 
Roman pontiff. The dearest objects of his heart are em- 
braced in the soil that gave them birth, the people among 
whom they live, and the government that affords them 
protection. Celibacy, on the contrary, precludes all these 
engagements, and directs the undivided affections of the 
priesthood to the church and 4ts ecclesiastical sovereign. 
The clergy become dependent on the pope rather than on 
their king, and endeavor to promote the prosperity of the 
Papacy rather than their country. Such are not linked 
with the state by an offspring whose happiness is involved 
in the prosperity of the nation. Gregory VII., accord- 
ingly, the great enemy of kings, was the distinguished 
patron of sacerdotal celibacy." 



THE IlESULT. 



211 



Here tlien, as before, in tlie case of lying, perjury, and 
murder, the Romish corporation deem universal pollution 
and corruption a less evil than the loss of their own 
usurped supremacy. If peculiar wrath and uncommon 
plagues are reserved by God for any class of men, surely 
it must be for such as these. 



ADDITIONAL CHARGES. 

What has been said may seem sufficient to prove that 
Romanism is the enemy of man. It is sufficient ; and yet 
it is far from exhausting the evidence that exists, and which 
must be considered in order to gain a full understanding 
of the magnitude of the interests involved in the great 
question now at issue in this nation and in the Christian 
world. 

It m not possible, however, advantageously to present 
some portions of the remaining argument until we have 
considered the evidence which exists that the Romish cor- 
poration has no historical or scriptural basis, but is the 
result of a stupendous system of imposture and forgery. 

To the consideration of this part of the subject let us 
now proceed. 



PART III. 



ROMANISM AN IMPOSITION AND A FORGERY. 



CHAPTER I. 

PRESUMPTIVE EVIDENCE OF TPIE FACT. 

It has been seen that the Romish corporation places it- 
self in such an attitude that it is practically the god of 
this world. It has an entire monopoly of the grace of 
God and of the word of God. God is invisible and inac- 
cessible except through the mediation of this corporation. 

Such a claim ought to be sustained by an amount and 
a clearness of evidence corresponding with its impor- 
tance. It is estimated that Rome has shed the blood of 
at least fifty millions of Christians for refusing to admit 
these claims ; it appears also that she still defends her 
past course, and would repeat the slaughters if she had 
the power. 

Has she, then, even a plausible ground for her lofty 
claims? I answer. No. The presumption on a general 
view of the facts of the case is against her ; and a fair 
examination of the records of history and of inspiration 

(212) 



PRESUMPTIVE EVIDENCE OF THE FACT. 213 

is all that is needed to expose her as the great mother 
of imposture and forgery. 



PRESUMPTION AGAINST ROME, FROM HER SANCTION OF LYING. 

The first presumptive argument against the members , 
of the Romish corporation arises from the fact that their 
theory of morals is such on the subject of veracity and 
fidelity that it is highly improbable that they have not 
used forgery and fraud in obtaining their present position 
and power. It appears that it is a fundamental part of 
their morals that the interests of that corporation are of 
more importance than truth or 'fidelity to promises, con- 
tracts, or oaths. It appears that they have acted upon 
these principles for ages and on a scale of vast magnitude. 

Now, it is self-evident that these same principles would 
equally justify them in the use of forgery and fraud in 
order to gain that power w^hich they consider of so much 
moment, and to extend and increase which they resort to 
measures so treacherous and unprincipled. 

Must there not be, therefore, a violent presumption that 
a corporation that has promulgated and sanctioned, as a 
part of its immutable and constitutional law, the princi- 
ple that it is right and a duty to lie for the sake of eccle- 
siastical utility, has already used this principle in laying 
the foundations of its own power and authority ? 

If the principle is deemed right, there will be nothing 
to prevent its use at any time or to any extent 'that eccle- 
siastical utility shall seem to demand. 

To Protestants, no doubt, it would appear to be a great 
crime to forge documents in the name of eminent men of 
past ages in order to substantiate any claims of any Prot- 
estant body. The training which they receive, and the 



214 



THE P^iPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED. 



fundamental principles of their morality, cause them to 
recoil from it with horror. 

But, if the morality of infallible popes and general coun- 
cils is any index of the morals of Romish ecclesiastics, 
they cannot regard it as a crime to forge any documents 
whatever which the welfare of the church seems to demand. 

There is not, therefore, in the fundamental morality of 
that system any thing to render it at all improbable or 
to prevent a high probability that it is entirely based up- 
on a constant use of fraud and forgeries in the past ages 
of history, especially in those in which there was* wide- 
spread ignorance and little or no critical skill to detect 
such forgeries. 

Thus the Romish corporation by their own acts have 
entirely cut themselves off from all defence against such 
imputations and presumptions, and laid themselves open 
to the just imputation of a readiness to employ forgery or 
fraud to any extent which their corporate interests might 
seem to demand. 



PRESUMPTION AGAINST ROME FROM PROPHECY. 

If we turn to the word of God we shall be struck with 
the remarkable fa^it that the rise of a great power is fore- 
told to be distinguished by these two great characteris- 
tics — the first, that it should arrogate to itself the place 
of Ood on earth ; the second, that, in sustaining such ar- 
rogant claims, it should resort to an unparalleled extent 
to the use of every kind of falsehood and fraud. This 
stupendous work of deception was to be commenced soon 
after the ascension of Christ, and was to result in a sys- 
tem of fraud and imposture which, though nominally re- 
~ iigious, should be in reality the masterwork of Satan^ 



PRESUMPTIVE EVIDENCE OP THE FACT. 



215 



exerting immense power, and enduring for ages, until at 
last it should perish before the glorious coming of our 
Savior to inflict just vengeance on his foes. The words 
of inspiration are these, addressed to those who had been 
alarmed by an apprehension of the immediate coming of 
Christ, (2 Thess. ii. 3-12 :) — 

" Let no man deceive you by any means ; for that day 
shall not come except there come a falling away first, and 
that m'an of sin be revealed, the son of perdition, who 
opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called 
God or that is worshipped ; so that he, as God, sitteth in 
the temple of God, showing himself that he is God. Re- 
member ye not that, when I was yet with you, I told you 
these things? And now ye know what withholdeth that 
he might be revealed in his time. For the mystery of 
iniquity doth already work ; only he who now letteth 
will lei until he be taken out of the way. And then 
shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall con- 
sume with the spirit of his mouth and shall destroy with 
the brightness of his coming — even him whose coming is 
after the working of Satan, with all power, and signs, and 
lying wonders, and with all deceivableness of unright- 
eousness in them that perish ; because they received not 
the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for 
this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they 
should believe a lie ; that they all might be damned who 
believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteous- 
ness." 

Now, is it not plain that these words cannot be applied 
to any system except one which makes peculiar pretences 
to take God's place on earth — one whose proceedings are 
manifestly characterized by a peculiar use of fraud and 
delusion — one whose roots are found in the early ages, 
near to the apostles, and whose development should last 
till the remote ages of the Christian dispensation, and 
whose power should be finally destroyed only by the com- 



216 



THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED. 



ing of Christ with divine power to execute vengeance 
upon his haughty and usurping adversary ? 

Does not the Romish corporation practically take the 
place of God and exhibit itself as such, especially in ex- 
alting the pope, their head, and giving him the titles and 
worship of God? Is not the use of falsehood, fraud, 
and perfidy their great characteristic? Are not the 
roots of the system in the early ages ? Is it not at this 
time, as in past ages, the great enemy of humanity, whose 
destruction is essential to the coming of an age of intel- 
ligence, liberty, and social purity ? To what other sys- 
tem, then, can the words of the prophecy so reasonably 
be applied as to the corporation of Rome ? Is not this 
the masterpiece of Satan ? 

To this argument the Romish corporation cannot reply 
that they do not believe in the existence of any such being 
as Satan, the great father of lies. 

No body of religionists professes a more full and un- 
doubting faith in the existence and power of the devil 
than the Romish corporation. They boldly proclaim 
that the reformation of Luther is in an eminent degree 
his work. All Bible and tract societies engaged in the 
diffusion of divine truth they ascribe to his crafty and 
malignant devices. But, according to them, the great en- 
emy of the devil on earth is the church of Rome, under 
the pope, her illustrious head. 

Agreeing, then, as we do, that there is a devil, the only 
question is. Whose principles and practice most resemble 
his ? And is it not plain that the Romish doctrine of 
falsehood is a genuine and legitimate offspring of him 
who is the father of lies ? Have we not reason, then, to 
think that the Romish corporation also is his work ? 

I shall not here offer any apology for professing my be- 
lief of the doctrine of satanic agency or enter into any 



PRESUMPTIVE EVIDENCE OF THE FACT. 217 

argument in its defence ; for to the great majority of the 
Christian world it is needless. It is held in commpn by 
the Romish church, the Greek church, and all the other 
Eastern churches, and by the whole evangelical Protestant 
world, Lutheran, Calvinistic, Episcopal, Methodist, Bap- 
tist, &c., although comparatively little theological or phil- 
osophical use has as yet been made of it. As presented in 
the word of God, no doctrine is more fundamental. The 
great end of the incarnation was to destroy the devil aud 
his kingdom by the redemption of the church. (1 John iiis 
2. Heb. ii. 14, 15.) Christ will reign as Mediator till it 
is done ; and then cometh the end. (1 Cor., xv. 24, 25.) 

Owing to the depravity of man, he has, where God 
does not prevent, entire ascendency over the race : he 
forms tremendous organizations, and by them deceives 
the nations and governs the world. (2 Cor. iv. 3, 4. 
Epii. ii. 1, 2. Rev. xiii. 1-4.) 

The millennial reign of Christ is caused, not by the un- 
aided progress of the human mind, but by the exposure 
and destruction of Satan's organizations, and to his being- 
bound and cast into the abyss, so as not to be an active 
agent in the history of the world or able to deceive the 
nations. (Rev. xix. 20, 21 ; xx. 1-8.) If these things 
are so, it must be conceded that every system of theology, 
history, or philosophy is fatally defective that omits him. 
It is not God's theology, history, or philosophy, but 
Satan's, designed to hide himself ; and any system of 
theology or philosophy is superficial that takes a super- 
ficial view of him. To take a profound and philosophical 
view of the Roman hierarchy, without a thorough analysis 
of his character, and maxims, and modes of deceit, is im- 
possible. And, before this great controversy comes to its 
crisis, he, and not any individual or generation, will be the 
<ireat subject of attack. 

ID 



218 



THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED. 



Assuming the truth of these views, I shall proceed to 
present additional presumptive evidence that the Romish 
corporation is the system of satanic fraud and delusion 
which is predicted in the word of God. 

It is plain, then, that the great system of fraud pre- 
dicted, whatever it is, had its roots in ages immediately 
after Christ, was for a time restrained, but was at last 
developed and completed by an astounding use of impos- 
ture and delusion, and exists even, to this day. Does this 
general view best accord with the Roman corporation or 
with Protestantism? I affirm that it best accords with 
Romanism. I shall, therefore, proceed to present the 
presumptive evidence that the Romish hierarchy is this 
stupendous system of fraud. 

Before proceeding to the proof, it is suitable to state 
explicitly what part is to be assigned to man in this stu- 
pendous fraud, and also to consider the nature and power 
of the additional presumptive evidence which is to be 
adduced. 

What part, then, is to be assigned to man ? 

1. Not that any one human mind ever in any age delib- 
erately and consciously planned and organized the whole 
system from the beginning, knowing it to be a fraud, as 
was no doubt true in the case of Joseph Smith when he 
formed a plan to delude his follow^ers by the book of 
Mormon. 

2. Nor that any number of men cooperating in one 
age, or in different ages, ever planned it as a whole, 
knowing it to-be a fraud. 

3. Nor that the great mass of the laity whom it has 
deluded and controlled have ever supposed it to be a 
fraud. 

4. Nor that all of its leading administrators and ad- 
vocates have ever regarded it as a fraud, though very 



PRESUMPTIVE EVIDENCE OF THE FACT. 219 

many have so regarded and used it when planned to their 
hands — even popes, bishops, and priests. 

5. Nor that there is no important doctrinal truth in 
some of its dogmas : there is much. 

6. Nor that no good men have ignorantly contributed 
to its formation, and lived under it, and obeyed it, as 
victims of delusion. 

7. Nor that it has never done any good ; but that the 
truth and the peculiarities of the system do not proper- 
ly belong together ; that one is of God, the other of the 
devil ; and that good men under it are made by the truth 
in spite of the system, and not because of it ; and that 
the good done is and has been done by the same truth and 
by good men in spite of the system, and not because of it. 
But the system, as a system, is false and pernicious, and, 
though not framed at once as a whole by any man or 
body of men as a fraud, was framed by that one far-seeing, 
comprehensive mind of whom the apostle speaks — once in 
heaven, and familiar with the whole character, laws, and 
administration of God, deeply versed in all questions of 
theology, skilled in organization and government, perfectly 
acquainted with all the phases of the human mind and of 
society, and a master of all the arts of sophistry and de- 
lusion to a degree beyond the conception of a human mind, 
and before whom all men and nations, not illuminated and 
defended by God, are, by reason of their dislike of the 
truth, mere simpletons — objects of his craft and delusive 
power — entangled in his snares, led captive at his will. 

He, livjng whilst generations die, is able to lay a plan 
requiriDg centuries for its execution. He can take ad- 
vantage of human depravity in all its forms and of the 
deep dislike of men to humbling and self-denying truth ; 
also of existing errors of philosophy or education, know- 
ing how to combine them and push them on to their final 



220 



THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED, 



results. Also he can avail himself of the remaining 
deprayity, worldliness, and pride of good men, and of 
the various errors which they mingle with truth. Also 
he can avail himself of existing defective forms of civil 
organization, and of the spirit, associations, tastes, and 
habits produced by them, in order by means of them to 
vitiate the spirit and form of Christian organization, 
xivailing himself of all these, he has by a delusive pro- 
cess, holding up great and good ends, such as preserving 
doctrine and unity in the church, produced a system 
adapted on the whole to do as much evil and as little 
good as in existing circumstances was possible ; for being 
limited to the problem of working hy delusion^ under the 
guise of Christianity, he could not work at all without 
doing some good and without some good men to work 
with. All that he could do would be to profess enough 
good to put men off their guard, and actually to do a cer- 
tain amount of good, or at least allow it to be done by those 
who. had a heart to do it. But he would make the pre- 
ponderating influence evil to the highest degree he could. 
Now, when I call the system of the Romish hierarchy a 
stupendous fraud, I mean that it is a system devised by 
Satan for this very end, and that by it he has thus far 
gained it to an astonishing extent. The delusion has 
been strong and complete to an amazing degree. It has 
been strong delusion to believe a lie. The system has 
wielded vast power and endured for century after centu- 
ry. By it Satan has still retained his position as the god 
of this world, and, what is still more amazing, has placed 
his throne in the temple of God, and thence sent forth 
his decrees to the nations and done his will without let 
or hinderance. I therefore can even suppose that Mr. 
Brownson and other lay Romanists are free from any at- 
tempt to sustain a known and designed fraud. I can 



PRESUMPTIVE EVIDENCE OF THE FACT. 



221 



regard them simply as the sincere but deluded subjects of 
a higher fraud, and would desire in meekness to instruct 
them, if peradyenture God may give them repentance, to 
the acknowledging of the truth, and that they may deliver 
themselves from the snares of Satan who are led captive 
by him at his will. Nor let any one suppose that I mean 
any disrespect by this. The existence of a devil has 
always been a fundamental doctrine of the Romish system ; 
nor do they hesitate to declare that Protestantism is his 
work. Hence Mr. Brownson represents the devil as 
greatly enraged by the present onset of the Roman world 
upon it and speaking great swelling words in its defence. 

Now, as both systems agree most fully in teaching the 
existence of a devil, and as they are logical opposites, 
of one or the other the devil is the author, and the advo- 
cates of one or the other are deluded. The Romanists 
charge it on the Protestants, and the Protestants retort 
the charge ; and thus they come to a logical issue. Just 
so was it between the Jews and Christ. They charged 
on him a league with the devil. He retorted on them the 
charge that they were of their father the devil ; and so 
they came to an issue. 

I proceed to show that the logical presumption is that 
the Romish hierarchy is a stupendous fraud of the devil. 

What, then, is the nature and power of the presumptive 
evidence which I propose to adduce? It is that which 
_arises from the action of the mind when it takes a rapid 
and comprehensive view of the leading facts of a given 
case and asks what hypothesis best explains them. 

Here a general knowledge of God and of the laws and . 
principles of his system is supposed ; also of men and 
human society ; also of the devil, and his character, laws, 
and modes of proceeding. And the question is raised, 
Which looks most likely — that this system is of God as it 
19* 



222 



THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED. 



claims, or that it is a stupendous fraud of the devil ? This 
is an effort of the mind to guard itself against limited, 
onesided views, or against the delusive power of dialectic 
sophistry, which it may not see how at once to analyze 
and destroy. It is like ascending a mountain and taking 
at a glance a general view of the prospect around. It 
deserves great regard ; and it enables sound and compre- 
hensive minds at once to see the general current or drift 
of evidence on a given point. 

Taking, then, in the first place a general view, I assert 
that, when we consider the extraordinary and all-compre- 
hending claims of this corporation, the prodigious powers 
of despotism they would grasp in their hands, the manner in 
which such claims ought to be proved, the kind and degree 
of proof offered, and the general mode in which they have 
in all ages conducted the argument, the whole procedure 
has on its face the appearance of a stupendous fraud. 

The points asserted and to be proved are, 1. That 
Christ intended to have a permanent corporation of 
bishops under one universal bishop, — his representative 
and vicar, — as successors of the apostles, who should 
have, as a corporation, inspiration, infallibility, and inde- 
fectibility. 2. That such a body is a church in any proper 
sense, and not a mere ecclesiastical hierarchy. 3. That 
Peter was the first head of this body. 4. Not only that 
Peter was at Rome, but that he had his see there, as uni- 
versal bishop of the church on earth. 5. That his su- 
premacy was to descend to his successors. 6. That God 
speaks and acts exclusively through this corporation ; so 
that all who reject them reject God, and cannot believe or 
be saved. Such are the claims put forth with the highest 
assurance in the centre of New England and before the 
civilized world and God most high. 

Now, in cases far less momentous there are principles 



PRESUMPTIVE EVIDENCE OP THE FACT. 



223 



of proof by which the common sense of mankind is wont 
to test any claims affecting life, reputation, or estate ; and 
there are intrinsic marks of honesty in presenting and 
sustaining such claims ; so that the mind, without going 
into logical details, receives, by an instantaneous judg- 
ment, a conviction of the truth or falsehood of the claims. 
I shall show that it is utterly impossible fairly to state 
these claims, and then put side by side the proof on which 
they are based, without comment, and then consider the 
mode in which the argument has always been conducted, 
without producing an instantaneous conviction that the 
whole system is a stupendous fraud practised on the 
credulity of the human race. * 

I am aware that the Romanists repudiate this view as • 
absurd and incredible ; but there are no pledges of God 
against the occurrence in the nominal church of such a 
corruption as this would imply, beginning early, extending 
wide, and changing the most powerful acting church to a 
harlot. Against this the Romanists cry out, as a breach 
of God's covenant to the church, as the Jews did when 
Paul announced their rejection and ruin. " If this is so, 
then the gates of hell have prevailed against the church," 
say they. The whole force of this goes upon the assump- 
tion that the gates of hell here spoken of are not the 
gates of Rome, and that the oath of God does not bind 
him to destroy her in order to defend his church against 
the gates of hell. And trnly nothing is adapted more 
clearly to show the power of God than to defend and 
preserve in this world a spiritual church, notwithstanding 
the debaucheries, rage, and bloody persecutions of Rome. 
All this looks vastly like defending the church against the 
gates of hell and the armies of hell issuing from those 
gates. 

But, not to rely on a mere negative statement, we do 



224 



THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED. 



know from the passage quoted that a stupendous fraud 
was to take place under the presiding influence of Satan, 
involving so much power, and leading to an opposition to 
God so great, that its destruction should call for a special 
interposition of Christ by the spirit of his mouth and the 
brightness of his appearing. Indeed the letters of Christ 
to the seven churches, the letters of Paul, and the Apoc- 
alypse of John all speak one language on this subject. 
They all portend a widespread and fatal apostasy in the 
visible church ; that the real church should as it were lie 
hid, and yet be miraculously defended by God against the 
rage of Satan in the ruling church. 

We are also distinctly informed in the text that the 
elements out of which it was to be formed were then in 
existence and at work, repressed indeed by certain causes, 
but sure to develop themselves when those causes should 
be removed. Again : we know that the full development 
of the pure and holy church of God, the marriage supper 
of the Lamb, the conversion of the world, the binding of 
Satan, and the reign of Christ were unfolded as events in 
the far-distant future, to be preceded by a period of great 
iniquity, in which the bottomless pit should be opened 
and stupendous satanic systems be developed, the destruc- 
tion of which should precede and introduce those glorious 
events. 

No points are more distinctly marked in the word of 
God than these. (See Eev. xix. 20.) They are like lofty 
mountain peaks ; nothing can hide or obscure them. They 
are in pointed contradiction of the Eomish hypothesis, 
that the first thing after Christ was the full development 
of the true church ; they fall in entirely with the Protes- 
tant view, that the first great and organized system to be 
developed was a stupendous fraud, imposed on the world 
by Satan in the guise of a church of God. 



PRESUMPTIVE EVIDENCE OP THE FACT. 225 

A second presumptive argument lies in the nature of the 
system as it is now presented to us in its perfected state. 
What is this system? Suppose ail opposition to cease, 
and let it have its way ; what would it become ? A close 
corporation, invested with the monopoly of the grace of 
God, and of heaven and hell, to the whole iiuman race, 
centralized by a universal spiritual monarch, denying in 
the name of God any responsibility to any human power 
on earth. 

Think now what man is — that the experience of all 
ages has taught us that the possession of irresponsible 
power above all things corrupts its possessors ; think that 
even Paul needed the counterpoise of constant afflictions 
to keep him from pride ; and then ask. Are we to expect 
that Romish popes and bishops, as a general fact, will be 
such paragons of piety and humility that all this honor 
and power will not corrupt and injure them ? I do not 
ask what the facts have been ; that I shall consider when I 
proceed to demonstrate that the system is of the devil. I 
am looking merely at the general aspect of the system 
now. God, we know, above all things abhors pride. Does 
this system, now, look like an exquisite divine device to pro- 
mote humility? Look at its bishops, archbishops, patri- 
archs, metropolitans, cardinals, and at the summit of the 
great pyramid, the absolute monarch of eight hundred mil- 
lions of men, — for such he claims to be by divine right, — 
and does it strike you as God's school of humility ? Think 
what Christ said when the disciples disputed who should 
be greatest ; how he mentioned the bad precedents of the 
aspiring great men of this world only to condemn them 
and to say, Among you it shall not be so ; and is it prob- 
able that nevertheless he meant to found a spiritual aris- 
tocracy, centralized by an absolute monarch, in comparison 
with which all the ambitious dreams of Alexander, Caesar, 
and Bonaparte are eclipsed and disappear ? 



226 



THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED. 



Again : think of him whose essence is pride— -who said, 
" I will mount up ; I will be as God ; " is it likely that we 
are to find his great antagonist in such a system as this ? 
Does it not rather seem to bear his -very image and super- 
scription ? Does it seem as if Satan, if he had desired a sys- 
tem to dall into his service the strongest depraved passions 
of the human heart, pride, and the love of wealth, honor, 
power, and sensual indulgence, could have devised a better 
plan ? And is this, after all, the only church of the living 
God, out of which there can be no holiness and no salva- 
tion ? Is it not more likely that this is the man of sin 
spoken of in the text, whom the Lord will consume by the 
breath of his mouth and destroy by the brightness of his 
coming ? 

I am aware that a cover of piety may be thrown over all 
this and much said of unity and orthodoxy ; and we may 
be told that we must trust in God to take care that his bride, 
his wife, does not abuse her power. We will trust in God 
indeed. But prove to us, first, that this corporation is his 
bride, his wife ; for, to speak the simple truth, she looks 
far more like the harlot of Satan, attired in scarlet, than 
like the bride, the Lamb's wife, attired in fine linen, clean 
and white. 

Another presumptive argument that the system is a stu- 
pendous fraud is found in the extreme scantiness of the 
scriptural proof by which it is sustained. 

There is no specific, formal, and definite statement of the 
system in the Bible such as a system' of power like this 
ought to have. Compare the statement of powers of 
officers in the laws of Moses, and the constitution of the 
United States, and in the case of Christ, with the state- 
ments claimed for this corporation as its scriptural proofs. 
Now, this corporation is, according to Bomanists, more im- 
portant than all God has done besides — more so than the 



PRESUMPTIYE EVIDENCE OF THE FACT. 227 

atonement or the Bible. They are absolutely of no use 
Trithout it. The system of God cannot go, it utterly fails, 
without it. If so, do not reason and common sense say 
it ought to be fully stated in the Bible ? If a mechanic, 
designing to teach a nation how to make and use steam- 
boats, should describe all other parts of the system, but 
should omit all mention of steam, and of the boiler and its 
attendant machinery, what should we think of it ? But if 
this corporation, with their head, is the mainspring of the 
system, why is it not fully described ? When the disciples 
were contending who should be greatest, it would have 
been easy to say, Peter shall be universal bishop, and to 
arrange the whole matter. When Peter was writing his 
epistles, it would have been easy for him, if he was at 
Pome, to say so, and, if he was head of the church, to 
write in that style. It would have been easy for Paul, 
when writing to Kome, to recognize the fact that Peter 
was the bishop of that church, that his see was there, 
and that his dominion and that of his successors was co- 
extensive with the globe. And as the successors of the 
apostles were to have only corporate inspiration and 
infallibility, it would have been easy to state it and 
how it was to be exercised — a thing not even yet 
decided. 

Now, how easy would it have been to have started right 
at the beginning if the claims of this corporation are true ! 
But, alas ! what an utter void is there where indisputable 
proof ought to be found I True, certain things are said to 
the apostles, and it is implied that they were to have 
successors of some sort, and that with them Christ would 
be to the end of the world ; but not a step can be taken 
without begging the question who these successors should 
be. True, also, certain things are said to Peter ; but 
here, too, not a step can be taken without begging the 



228 



THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED. 



question and assuming their own interpretation as the 
only correct one. But as to Rome, and a see there, &c., 
there is an utter blank. 

Indeed the celebrated Newman, the leader of the Trac* 
tarians, now, like Mr. Brownson, in the bosom of Rome, in 
his work on ecclesiastical development, designed to say 
all in behalf of Rome that he can, is obliged to admit the 
truth of all I say. He confesses that the passages of 
Scripture claimed by the Papal see are " more or less ob- 
scure, and NEEDS A COMMENT." He admits that the Pa- 
pacy was not developed or known during the first two cen- 
turies, nor were ecumenical councils. He assigns, too, the 
reason why — the persecuting pagan Roman empire rendered 
the development of such a system impossible. He resorts 
to the idea of an intended divine development of it when 
it appeared. There was a development, no doubt ; but 
whether of God or of the devil is the question. To me 
Newman's words look like an undesigned comment on 
Paul's statement, in the passage quoted, of the temporary 
repression of the mystery of iniquity, and its development 
when the obstacle should be removed. 

Hear him : " An international bond " [like the Papacy] 
" and a common authority could not be consolidated, were 
it ever so certainly provided, while persecutions lasted. 
If the imperial power checked the development of coun- 
cils, it availed also for keeping back the power of the 
Papacy." But when persecution was removed, it was, ac- 
cording to him, developed, and, when the imperial power 
fell, still more so. Amen. So I understand Paul to assert 
of the man of sin in the text. At all events, Mr. New- 
man is compelled to concede my facts. He admits that 
for two centuries " the regalia Petri * slept," as " a mys- 

* Royal and supreme authority of Peter. 



presij*mptive evidence of the fact. 229 
terious privilege not understood — as an unfulfilled propli- 

And is it likely that this is the way God would have 
established a power on the reception of which heaven and 
hell depend, without which the Bible cannot be under- 
stood — by a few obscure passages, so obscure that for two 
centuries no one understood them, and the powers giv- 
en slumbered like the meaning of an unfulfilled proph- 
ecy ? And yet nothing more does even Mr. Newman dare 
to claim. 

No wonder that the Eomanists think that the Bible 
needs the church for an interpreter ; for no other body in 
heaven or on earth could get any support for their hier- 
archy out of it. Plainly at first sight it is not there ; 
and you may strain your eyes, and yet you cannot see it. 
If all this is not strong presumptive evidence of a stupen- 
dous fraud, I know not what is. 

Another presumptive evidence of a stupendous fraud is 
the manner in which the argument has been conducted 
from age to age. 

The claims of the hierarchy are not the same from age 
to age ; they are now stupendous and all-comprehending. 
Go back beyond Gregory YIL, and how are they dimin- 
ished ! Go back to the days of Augustine, and how are 
they still diminished ! Go back to the first century, and 
they disappear. The system is like a pyramid standing 
on its apex and with its base upward ; and Mr. Newman 
is trying to prop it up by developments and Mr. Brown- 
son by a 'prim'i arguments. But what does it most resem- 
ble — the honesty of God, or the fraud of a deceiving spirit, 
augmenting his claims as best he can by any means, fair 
or foul, from age to age ? 

Again : her universal reliance, when in the majority, on 
force, and not on argument, betokens that she is the tcm- 
20 



230 THE PAPAL CONSPIEACY EXPOSED. 

pie of the father of lies, and not of God. When they 
are in the minority her advocates disclaim the use of 
force. But does the infallible hierarchy ? Let the coun- 
cils of the Lateran ; let the dungeons, and racks, and stakes 
of the Inquisition ; let the crusades against the Albigenses 
and the massacre of St. Bartholomew ; let the oceans of 
blood shed by her authority and order, reply. And does 
this create a presumption that the presiding spirit of that 
church is mild, and meek, and gentle, sustained by an 
inward consciousness that God and all the truth in the 
universe are on her side ? Or is it like the conduct of a 
ruling spirit who knows that the whole fabric is based on 
lies, and that, so soon as true logic and true holiness shall 
have free course and divine energy, he and his system will 
be plunged together into a lake of logical and unquench- 
able fire ? 

Again : the same presumption that the whole system is 
one of fraud is created by the unfeigned horror with 
which it has regarded the translation and circulation of 
the Bible in the living languages of men. Is not this a 
clear presumption of fraud ? Is the President of these 
United States afraid of the constitution of these United 
States? Does he deem it a dangerous document? Does 
he wish to lock it up in Latin and keep it out of the hands 
of the people? Why then the constant roaring of the 
pope against Bible societies? Is not the Bible the con- 
stitution of the kingdom of Christ ? And, if he meant to 
have a pope in his church, is not his office clearly set forth 
in the constitution of his church ? Alas ! Mr. Newman 
tells us the passages claimed by the pope are "more or 
less obscure, and need a comment.'' Even so they do need 
a comment, and one that is able to subvert the obvious 
sense of the whole Bible. Hence the indispensable ne- 
cessity of keeping the Bible in their own hands if they 



PRESUMPTIVE EVIDENCE OP THE FACT. 231 

can, and at least of obliging all men, on pain of eternal 
damnation, implicitly to believe their interpretation of it. 

Five bulls against Bible societies have been issued in the 
last thirty years — the last in 1844. It chills the blood to 
hear in what manner they speak of the Bible and of the 
" crafty device of circulating the revealed word of God. 
The devil, it would seem, in his rage against Rome, has 
become the great patron of Bible societies. It is hard to 
tell whether this is most blasphemous or ludicrous. And 
what is the flimsy pretext of all this ? Do they talk of 
inaccurate versions ? Surely they were admirable judges 
who in the council of Trent declared the Yulgate the ul- 
timate standard of appeal, with all its notorious errors. 
And why? Because the infallible bishops of that council, 
according to Sarpi, did not know enough of Hebrew and 
Greek to read it in the original, and in Latin they could 
read it. And so Mr. Brownson now appeals to the Latin 
original instead of the Hebrew or Greek ! Is this the 
church to be so fierce against inaccurate translations? 
But the pretext is too flimsy. Beneath those ecclesiastical 
robes and forms of piety in the midst of that church there 
meets the eye a presiding spirit whose whole soul is filled 
with dread and hatred of the word of God. To him 
it is a consuming fire ; and hence in rage he would burn 
it with fire. When the time comes I shall exhibit at large 
the treatment it has received from the hierarchy. At this 
time I present only that impression which a general view 
of facts at once forces on an honest mind. Nothing is a 
stronger presumptive argument against this church than 
this constant dread of the word of God, and earnest de- 
sire to introduce apocryphal books and human traditions 
as the basis of her arguments in order to sustain a sink- 
ing cause. But no human tongue can tell one half of the 
fearful truth on this point. I leave it to be fully disclosed 



232 



THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED. 



by Him who, by the spirit of his mouth and the brightness 
of his coming, shall, like devouring fire, forever consume 
this stupendous system of organized fraud. 

If any one desires to reply to this, let him, if he dares, 
first give a complete and discriminating analysis of the 
character, maxims, and spirit of God and of Satan in con- 
trast and according to the word of God. Who will de- 
ny that there is a broad, an infinite, distinction between 
their characters, maxims, and spirit, as laid down in the 
word of God ? What is it ? Let the Romanists, then, do 
what they never yet have done — let them state the exact 
difference between God and the devil, not in general 
terms, but in a practical point of view and according to 
his word, and then prove, if they can, that the facts in 
the history of their church to which I have referred create 
a logical presumption that God is its author, and not the 
devil. But this they can never do. Nay, that is saying 
but little. When such a contrast of the character of God 
and the devil shall be made, it will become, according to 
the law of cause and effect, as logically certain as the law 
of gravitation that no being but the devil can be the au- 
thor and presiding spirit of that church. But the full 
proof on this point I reserve to a future argument. It is 
enough that I have clearly stated at present the presump- 
tive proof that the whole system is a stupendous fraud of 
Satan. 

When God comes to destroy that system he will admit 
of no neutrality. If it is not what it professes to be, there 
is no blasphemy like it, nor will God display towards any 
other system such fierceness of wrath. Let every man, 
then, take care on which side he is found in this final war. 

Let us never forget that the enemy with whom we con- 
tend is superhuman, the common enemy of the human race ; 
and let us not hate those whom he deceives, but pity 



PRESUMPTIVE EVIDENCE OF THE FACT. 233 

them, love them, and pray for them. God has saved 
millions from that delusive system ; he can save millions 
more. Pray, then, for the deluded millions of Italy, Por- 
tugal, Spain, Austria, and France. Pray for the millions 
of our own land and of all lands. There is power in 
prayer. Feel for them ; they are deluded. Satan is their 
enemy and ours. Pray that the vials of God's wrath may 
fall on him, and that they may be delivered from their 
miserable bondage to him, and be saved. The time for 
the utter destruction of that system plainly draws near ; 
the truth must be spoken, and spoken boldly ; but the 
main work is to be done by the Holy Ghost and by 
prayer. 

20* 



CHAPTER II. 



ARGUMENT FROM HISTORY. 

It is certainly very unusual to be called on to make 
the charge of a regular and extensive system of forgery 
and fraud upon a powerful corporation professing to be 
religious, and even to assert that the very existence of 
that corporation is owing to such forgery and fraud. 

In ordinary cases I would not do it ; but this is no 
ordinary case. In common cases any corporation profess- 
ing to be respectable has a right to the presumption that 
it will not practise forgery and gross deception. The 
reason is that they all avow the principle that these 
things are always wrong. 

But with the Eomish corporation it is not so. They 
avow the doctrine that to lie and deceive for ecclesiastical 
utility is right. This being the case, it is obviously im- 
possible to create a presumption that the system was not 
formed by the use of forgery and fraud. On the other 
hand, there must be a very strong presumption that it was. 

I do not hesitate, therefore, to say that facts accord 
with this presumption, and that there is the most unequiv- 
ocal historical evidence that such was. the origin of the 
system. Nor is the evidence of this assertion sparing or 
feeble. It can be demonstrated, by even a superfluity of 
unequivocal and undeniable historical evidence, that the 
principle of lying for ecclesiastical utility is the absolute 

(234) 



ARGUMENT FROM HISTORY. 



-235 



creator of every part and particle of the Romish corpora- 
tion as it now exists. 

Not a feature of its present constitution can be men- 
tioned that cannot be traced -back by the clearest histor- 
ical evidence to a time when it did not exist, and the pro- 
cess can be shown through which it was created by fraud 
and forgery. There is, in fact, nothing to be compared 
with this system of forgery for its magnitude and results 
in the history of the world. But at this we need not won- 
der. If the principle of lying for ecclesiastical utility is 
sound, why should it not be carried out on a great scale ? 

But to descend to particulars. The pope is now a tem- 
poral ruler of a territory about three times as large as the 
State of Massachusetts. It stretches across Italy from the 
Mediterranean to the Adriatic. It is an essential part of 
the present system. It makes him independent of any 
temporal ruler. He is bound by no oath of allegiance to 
any earthly sovereign. This is felt to be essential in 
order to carry out his claims as a universal spiritual sov- 
ereign. Was it always thus? I answer. No. He was 
not always ruler of this or of any other territory. We can 
trace back the history of this matter to the beginning ; 
and we find that the original claim was founded on a 
most notorious forgery, purporting to be a donation of 
territory from the Emperor Constantino. 

This was followed up by other similar forgeries, until 
at last an actual beginning of temporal power, first de- 
pendent, and finally independent, was made. After this it 
was extended by war and treachery to its present extent. 

The pope is now elected by a college of cardinals, who 
are princes in the Papal state and next in honor to the 
pope. From them alone can he be chosen. Was it al- 
ways thus? I answer, No. We can trace back this part 



236 



THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED^ 



of the system until it entirely disappears, and can point 
out its fraudulent and unauthorized origin. 

The bishops of the Romish church are now bound to 
the Yiope hj 2i feudal oath, which plainly betrays itself as a 
product of the middle ages. We can trace this, too, back 
till it disappears, and we come to a time when every 
bishop in Europe, Asia, and Africa would have denounced 
with indignation the demand of any such oath as an act 
of impious and unparalleled usurpation of authority. 

The pope has now supreme judicial authority. No 
bishop, no synod, has ultimate jurisdiction. An appeal 
may be taken from them all to Rome. We can trace this 
part also of the system back to the time when the supremo 
judicial authority of the pope wholly disappears, and each 
local church with its rulers was entirely independent of 
every other. The idea of an appeal from the decision of 
particular churches to synods was at length introduced ; 
but even after this the idea of a universal appeal to 
the Bishop of Rome was repudiated with the utmost de- 
cision. Indeed by the first general council, A. D. 325, it 
was absolutely and definitely forbidden. The existing 
judicial power of the pope was obtained by forgery. 

At the present time, too, the pope has the power of 
making laws and prescribing usages for the whole church. 
He also is invested with supreme executive power. We 
can trace these parts of the system also back till they 
disappear. We can discover, too, the very forgeries 
by which the present state of things was brought into 
existence. 

The pope, moreover, now claims supremacy on the ground 
of the assumed fact that Peter was appointed the prince 
of the apostles and the head and ruler of the church. 
We can trace this claim also back to a time in which 



ARGUMENT FROM IITSTORY. 



237 



those who are now absurdly called the early Popes of 
Rome were utterly ignorant of this doctrine and made no 
such claim ; and we can show how after four or five 
centuries the idea was introduced and how it was made 
to triumph by falsehood and fraud. 

The doctrine also as to the infallible authority of a 
general council under the pope can be traced back till it 
utterly disappears, together with the very idea of such a 
council. 

Moreover, when the idea of calling such a council was 
originated, the Bishop of Rome neither called it, presided 
in it, nor confirmed and gave authority to its decrees. His 
right to do all these things has been since usurped by 
falsehood and fraud. 

The law of the celibacy of the clergy, which is one main 
pillar of the Papacy, can also be thus traced back till it 
disappears. The same is true of the doctrine of auricular 
confession — that great engine of Papal and priestly des- 
potism. 

So also the doctrines of transubstantiation, purgatory, 
saint and image worship, and the whole system of sacra- 
mental regeneration and sanctification can be traced back 
till they vanish, and the last fragment of Romanism, either 
in doctrine or in government, utterly disappears. 

The . creation of the peculiar doctrines of Romanism 
was not so entirely effected by forgery as was the existing 
Papal corporation and form of goverment ; and, as this is 
the central power of the system, my main purpose calls 
for a more particular exposure of this. 

It is well for the community that this is a mere question 
of historical fact. It is a question of unspeakable interest, 
not only to our country, but to the world. If the Papal 
corporation is a fraud, created by unprincipled forgery, 
then it is a conspiracy against the welfare of the human 



238 THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED. 

race which deserves the highest possible detestation. God 
only, the Infinite, the Almighty, can adequately express the 
abhorrence that it deserves. 

When we consider its arrogant claims, when we trace 
its history, when we contemplate the oceans of blood that 
it has shed simply for the alleged crime of denying and 
repudiating its claims, the mind of man is appalled, and 
fails at the magnitude of the guilt involved ; nor does it 
find relief till it falls back on the idea of an almighty 
Judge. He can arouse the mind of humanity to under- 
take this mighty judgment, and he can uphold and 
strengthen them in its execution. 

Indeed his word contains a call to the friends of God 
and man to engage in this work, and his providence coin- - 
cides in summoning the nations to the judgment. Our 
country especially is called on to lead the way. 



CHAPTER III. 



FORMATION OF THE ROMISH CORPORATION. • 

There is to be, as I have said, an historical day of 
judgment. God has come on burning wheels ; fiery flames 
precede him ; the thrones are set, the books are opened, 
and the Romish corporation and their head are summoned 
before his bar to answer for their arrogant pretences and 
bloody deeds. 

Let us, then, open the pages of the book of history be- 
fore the bar of this almighty and impartial Judge, and 
listen to their testimony against the corporation of Rome. 

The time covered by the claim of the Romish corpora- 
tion includes nearly nineteen centuries. They exhibit to 
the world an unbroken line of popes, stretching across 
this vast tract of time, and terminating, as they allege, 
with Peter at Rome. 

To unlearned Romanists, and to others who know what 
the pope now is, it appears as if the Papal leaders taught 
that a line of such popes extended back to that time. 
Such, we do not doubt, is the impression which they mean 
to convey. 

If the history of this long period were familiarly known, 
such a claim would appear little less than ridiculous insau 
ity, if its impiety did not eclipse every other consideration. 
But there is no popular knowledge of this period, and 
therefore no ability to treat such a claim as it deserves. 

(239) 



240 



THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED. 



Of course it is not possible witliiu mj limits to give so 
extended a history in full ; but I can with ease make some 
general statements which will dissipate the Papal delusion 
to which I have adverted and place the great facts of the 
case in a true light. 

Bishop Kenrick, of Philadelphia, has given us a list of 
two hundred and fifty persons, called popes, who are said 
to have reigned during this tune, ending with Gregory 
XYI. Daunou, a French Catholic, has also given us a list 
of two hundred and sixty-three, terminating with the same 
pope. Bishop Kenrick says that " the number varies ac- 
cording as certain individuals are considered intruders or 
lawful popes." (Primacy, p. 488.) It appears, then, that 
Eomanists are not always agreed who are the true popes. 
The bishop says, " It is a matter for critical inquiry." This 
I think any one will concede who attempts to look into 
the matter. To settle all questions involved in the Papal 
schisms and the claims of anti-popes will require a very 
critical inquiry, and at the best lead to very doubtful re- 
sults, as is plain from the divisions of Romanists on the 
subject. 

But this long list of popes may be divided into six 
classes, according to the state of the civil governments of 
the world. 

The first class includes those who were under the Ro- 
man empire for three centuries before the conversion of 
Constantino to Christianity. Of these thirty-two are 
given by Kenrick and Daunou, up to Sylvester, by whom, 
as we are told by certain notorious Roman forgers, Con- 
stantino was baptized, and to whom, the same forgers tell 
us, he gave his palace, Rome, and the Empire of the West. 

The second class includes those who were under the Ro- 
man empire from the conversion of Constantino till its down- 
fall in 476 — a space of nearly two centuries. Of these. 



FORMATION OF THE EOMISH COEPORATION. 241 

there are given thirteen by Daunou and Kenrick, includ- 
ing Leo I., soon after whom Rome fell. 

Though Pope Leo I. died fifteen j^ears before the fall 
of Rome, yet I select him because he was the leading 
spirit of that age, and the master builder who first made 
Peter the basis of the Roman claim of supremacy of juris- 
diction and spiritual power. 

In these two periods lived the early Christian writers 
commonly known as the fathers — as, for example, Augus- 
tine, Bishop of Hippo, Chrysostom, Bishop of Constanti- 
nople, Ambrose, Bishop of Milan. Of these the see of 
Rome furnished none except Leo just before the city fell. 

The third class consists of those who were under the 
government of the barbarian conquerors of Rome, or of 
the Emperors of Constantinople when they reconquered 
Rome, until the revival of the Empire of the West by 
Charlemagne in the year 800 — a space of three centuries 
and a quarter. Of these fifty-two are given by Kenrick 
and fifty-one by Daunou, including Leo III., by whom 
Charlemagne was crowned. 

In this period there were a few writers in the first cen- 
tury, of whom Pope Gregory, called the Great, is chief. 
The last two centuries from 600 were the beginning of the 
midnight of the dark ages. 

The fourth class consists of those who lived between 
Charlemagne, A. D. 800, and the celebrated Gregory YIL, 
A. D. 1073-85, called sometimes Hildehrand, and regarded 
as the Napoleon of the Romish corporation. Of these 
sixty-four are enumerated by Daunou and fifty-six by 
Kenrick. 

During this period no great writers meet us. We are 
still in the midnight of the dark ages, notwithstanding 
a transient gleam of light around Charlemagne. These 
last two periods are the ages of forgery and fraud. Soon 
21 



242 



THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED. 



after 1000, however, the period of the scholastic divines 
opened. There we see Anselm, Lanfranck, Abelard. 

The fifth class includes the popes from Gregory YII. to 
the reformation under Leo X., A. D. 1514. This period 
extends through about four centuries, and contains sixty 
popes according to Kenrick, and sixty-six according to 
Daunou. 

This is by way of eminence the Papal period. In it the 
existing corporation of Rome was first fully organized on 
foundations and of materials previously forged. In it the 
peculiar doctrines of Romanism which are the sinews of 
its power and the sources of profit were fully developed 
and established. This is the period of the crusades and of 
scholastic divinity : this, too, is the period of Papal art. 

The sixth class extends from the reformation to the 
present day, — a period of about 'three centuries and a 
half, — and contains thirty-eight popes according to both 
Kenrick and Daunou. In this period began the great 
work of exposing the forgeries and frauds of Rome, which 
is yet to be completed. 

It, has been a period of intense intellectual activity; 
especially has it been remarkable as an age of historical 
and critical development. The study of history was once 
confined to the leading few ; it has during this period 
descended more and more to the people. We, as a nation 
of self-governing freemen, above all others need to be well 
versed in history, and especially in the history of that 
corporation whose origin and formation it is my purpose 
now to illustrate in a survey of the divisions which have 
been made. 

To impress this division more strongly upon the mind, 
and to aid the power of conception when I shall speak of 
the history of the Papal corporation, I here present a sim- 
ple chart of the period and of its divisions. 



CLASSIFICATION OF THE POPES FROM CHRIST 
TO THIS DAY. 



A.D. Augustus. 

100 
200 

300 Constantine. 
400 

500 Rome falls. 
600 
JOO 

800 Charlemagne. 
900 
1000 

1100 Henry lY. 

1200 

1300 

1400 

1500 Charles Y. 

1600 

1700 

1800 



o 

rH 

o 



Luther. 
£"1 

Lp^ J 



Christ. 

Sylvester. 
Leo 1. 

Leo IIL 



Gregory YII. 
Innocent IIL 
Boniface YIIL 

Leo X. 



Pius IX. 

(243) 



246 



THE PAPAL CONSPIEACY EXPOSED. 



supreme spiritual authority over the human race ; and to 
them we are now referred as our only sure guides in the 
discovery of truth, and as the only medium through which 
we can reach heaven. 

Nor is this all. They have shed the blood of millions 
for denying these claims ; and this Mr. Brownson now 
defends as only an exercise of legitimate authority. Nor 
is this all. He claims a supremacy for the institutions of 
this corporation over our national institutions on the 
ground that what is of man must give way before what 
is of God. 

Let us, then, consider in the light of history the actual 
process in the formation of the Romish corporation. 
The fabric of this corporation, as it now stands, may be 
compared to St. Peter's Church at Rome. As that in its 
magnitude exceeds all other churches, so is this the great- 
est fabric of ecclesiastical architecture ever known on 
earth. The pope, the cardinals, the patriarchs, tiie me- 
tropolitans, the bishops, the priests, the deacons are all 
organized in a vast system, extending itself over the 
globe and aiming at universal conquest. In it are the 
various orders of monks, nuns, Jesuits, bound to it by 
oaths and sworn to extend its sway. 

When was the fabric erected ? By whom ? How ? 
How did the pope gain his powers and become the centre 
of such a system ? To these questions but two answers 
can be given. The first, that of Rome — God thus ordained 
from the beginning. The other I have given — it is a 
stupendous fraud of the devil. Look, then, at the first 
centuries — days of persecution, weakness, martyrdom. 
Is it not on the face of things as absurd to think it then 
put up by the apostles as to think that Paul and Peter 
built St. Peter's Church and the Vatican ? 



FORMATION OF THE ROMISH CORPORATION. 247 



FIRST CLASS OF POPES. 

Where, then, was the temporal power of the pope 
when the palace of the Caesars was at Rome, when Paul 
died there as a martyr, when persecution after persecution 
filled the empire with the blood of the slain ? 

Where, then, was the body of cardinal princes clothed 
in scarlet ? Where the oath to obey the pope ? Where 
his supreme judicial, legislative, and executive authority ? 
Where were the general councils ? Where the canon 
law ? What single part of the present great fabric can 
be found there ? Not one. Mr. Newman is forced to 
confess that the existing system was not then erected ; 
not a particle of it could be seen. And history, with 
irresistible power, repudiates every claim of Rome. All 
churches were then equal and independent ; neither they 
nor their pastors claimed authority over each other. 
There was then no corporation of any kind in existence. 
It was nearly two centuries before they even began to act 
together in synods. 

All this is notorious, and is conceded by all church 
historians of any candor. But it is of still greater mo- 
ment that it can be proved to have been the view held at 
Rome, where the Romanists assure us that Peter, the 
prince of the apostles, the great head of the church, had 
established his see and transferred his power to his suc- 
cessors, who, if these assertions are true, must have had 
some knowledge of the fact. 



248 THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED. 



CLEMENT'S LETTER. 

After Peter, if we may trust tradition, came Linus, 
and then Cletus, or Anacletus. Of these two little or 
nothing is known or said. Then comes a real person 
and a writer well known — Clement, son of Faustinus, a 
Roman. He was really the pastor of the church of Rome. 
According to Origen, Eusebius, and all the ancients, says 
Bower, he is the person whom Paul, in his Epistle to the 
Philippians, names among those who had labored with 
him in the gospel and whose names were in the book of 
life. From him there has come down to us one true and 
genuine epistle. 

It is also a long epistle. Moreover it is an epistle on 
a subject directly adapted to bring out the Papal prerog- 
atives of Clement, if he had any. The epistle informs us 
that the church of Corinth had deposed some of their 
presbyters and were in a state of painful division. 
Clement and the church at Rome deemed this deposition 
groundless in view of the statements of the church at 
Corinth which had been laid before them for advice. 
Have we not here a test question ? If Clement, the fel- 
low-laborer of Paul, the contemporary of Peter, had 
known even the A B C of the present Papal system, 
would he not at once have commanded the church at Cor- 
inth, in the name of Almighty God and of the blessed 
apostles Peter and Paul, and on peril of their wrath, to 
restore these deposed presbyters ? 

Did he do it ? Nay ; he did no such thing. On the oth- 
er hand, he conceded that the Corinthian church had not 
exceeded their legal power and that he had no power 
over them ; but he tried to convince them that they had 
exercised their power unjustly and to persuade them to 



FORMATION OF THE ROMISH CORPORATION. 249 

restore the deposed bishops. He tells them that the de- 
posed bishops had been properly chosen by the whole 
church, and had long served the flock of Christ humbly, 
quietly, liberally, without censure, and with a good repu- 
tation among all. ''These," says he, " we think cannot be 
justly deposed from their office ; for it will be no small 
sin to depose from their office as bishops those who have 
performed their duties holily and without reproach." 

Nor is this the whole strength of the case. Clement 
does not even speak in his own name at all. He sinks 
himself out of sight. He speaks simply as the mouth of 
the church of Rome. 

Let us compare the opening of the bull of Pius Y. in 
which he announced the excommunication and damnation 
of Elizabeth, Queen of England, with the opening of the 
letter of Clement : — 

" Pius, bishop, servant of the servants of God : for a 
perpetual memorial of the matter. He that reigneth on 
high, to whom is given all power in heaven and in earth, 
committed one holy Catholic church, out of which there 
is no salvation, to one alone on earth — namely, to Peter, 
the prince of the apostles, and to Peter's successor, the 
Bishop of Borne, to be governed in fulness of power," &c. 

Clement begins his letter thus : — 

" The church of God dwelling at Home to the church 
of God dwelling at Corinth, called and sanctified by the 
divine will through our Lord Jesus Christ : grace and 
peace be multiplied to you by Almighty God, through 
Jesus Christ." 

The writer then proceeds to praise the Corinthians for 
their former good conduct and to exhort them to heal 
their divisions and to restore their depos'ed bishops. His 
motives are derived from the examples of other ages and 
from the words of Scripture. The government of the 



250 



THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED. 



Corinthian church was plainly in the hands of the people, 
and all that the Roman church did was to advise and 
exhort. 

So plain is this case that Waddington, an Episcopal his- 
torian, says of the church in Corinth, "The Episcopal 
form of government was clearly not yet here established.'' 
It is no less plain that, if there was a bishop at Rome, he 
was not a modern pope. He says nothing of Peter's see, 
nothing of himself, nothing of the wrath of Almighty 
God and the blessed apostles Paul and Peter on all in the 
church of Corinth who will not obey his bull. Neither 
he nor the church claim any other power or authority than 
that of Christian advice, expostulation, and exhortation. 
And yet the case was one of great moment and of great 
urgency, as is evident from the very nature of the facts 
stated and from the earnest entreaties of the letter. 

I know not how a more pointed repudiation of all the 
present claims of the Papacy could have been made. 

How little this letter is adapted to meet the ideas of 
the Romish corporation will soon become plain when we 
shall come to consider certain letters afterwards forged 
by them in the name of Clement in order to accomplish 
their ambitious ends. They, in their forgeries, make 
Clement speak to some purpose. The whole story as to 
Peter is at his tongue's end. 

The strength of this case cannot be over-estimated. 
Bower well remarks, " Had he known himself to be the un- 
erring judge of controversies, there had been no room for 
persuasions : he ought to have exercised his power and put 
an end to all disputes in the peremptory style of his succes- 
sors." So much for Pope Clement. 



FORMATION OF THE ROMISH CORPORATION. 251 



PIUS I. 

Let US pass over Popes Evaristus, Alexander I., Six- 
tus I., Telesphorus, and Hyginus, of whom very little 
is known, and come to Pius I., A. D. 142-157. Under 
him occurred another event which completely annihilates 
all the pretensions of the Papal corporation. Marcion, of 
Sinope, had been excommunicated from the church of his 
father, a bishop of the Catholic communion, for certain 
grave offences. He fled to Rome and prayed to be ad- 
mitted to their communion. The church of Rome told 
him, as Epiphanius testifies, " We cannot admit you with- 
out leave from your holy father ; nor can we, as we . 

ARE ALL UNITED IN THE SAME FAITH AND THE SAME SEN- 
TIMENTS, UNDO WHAT OUR HOLY COLLEAGUE, YOUR HOLY 
FATHER, HAS DONE." 

Can any thing be more decisive than this fact ? Is not 
this an absolute and direct disavowal of the supremacy 
claimed by the Papists for the church of Rome ? Is it not 
an avowal of the doctrine that all churches are equal and 
independent, and that no one has a right to overrule or 
reverse the decision of another ? This was in the middle 
of the second century, and proves that up to that time 
the primitive equality of the churches was fully acknowl- 
edged and avowed even at Rome. The incursions of 
clerical ambition had not then begun. 

On this narrative Bower keenly remarks, " Had Bellar- 
mine lived in those days he had taught them another doc- 
trine, — a doctrine which, however necessary, the apostles 
had forgot to deliver to their disciples, — viz., that the see of 
Rome was raised above all other sees ; that the appeals 
of the whole Catholic church were to be brought to it ; 
that no appeals were to be made from it ; that it was to 



252 



THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED. 



judge of the whole church, but be judged by none. Mar- 
cion did not apply to Pius, or at least to him alone, but to 
the elders, who disclaimed all power of reversing the 
sentence of a particular bishop. And is not this an evi- 
dent and incontestable proof that the power of receiving 
appeals was not known or thought of in those days ? " 

The next pope, Anicetus, and Polycarp, Bishop of Smyr- 
na, differed as to the time of the celebration of Easter, and 
could not convince each other ; but the pope did not com- 
mand, nor Polycarp obey, but each followed his own 
opinions. Passing by Soter and Eleutherius, we comer to 
Victor, A. D. 192-201. 



ROMAN ARROGANCE DEVELOPED. 

Here we meet the first manifestation of episcopal arro- 
gance in the Bishop of Rome ; and now a course of events 
opens upon us of this kind. Claims are made by the 
Eomish bishops and repudiated by the churches at large, 
but persevered in by their successors and referred back to 
as precedents. Hallam remarks as to such claims, " In the 
history of all usurping governments time changes anomaly 
into system and injury into right ; examples beget custom^ 
and custom ripens into law ; and the doubtful precedent 
of one generation becomes the fundamental maxim of 
another." 

In the case of Victor, we see the first effort of the 
Bishop of Rome to exert a power of making law for the 
churches. Not following the example of Anicetus in the 
case of Polycarp, he undertook to impose the Roman view 
of Easter on Polycrates and the Bishops of Asia Minor, 
and excommunicated them for refusing to conform. But 
the other churches of the Christian world repudiated this 



FORMATION OF THE ROMISH CORPORATION. 



253 



arrogant proceeding and rendered it null and void. Thus 
it is not until the end of the second century that the 
Bishop of Rome put forth claims to jurisdiction over other 
churches, and then they were universally repudiated. 
Passing by Zephyrinus, Callistus, Urbanus, Pontianus, 
Anterus, Fabianus, Cornelius, and Lucius, we come to 
Stephen, who made an effort like that of Victor to ex- 
communicate Cyprian and a council of African bishops 
for refusing to adopt his views of the baptism of heretics. 
This also was repudiated and rendered powerless by the 
other churches of the age. 

Passing over Sixtus II., Dionysius, Felix, Eutychianus, 
Caius, Marcellinus, Marcellus, Eusebius, and Melchiades, 
we come to Sylvester, by whom Constantino was said by 
the Roman forgers to have been baptized. 

Thus it appears that in the first century, and up to the 
middle of the second, the Papal system not only did not 
exist at Rome, but was distinctly repudiated and de- 
nounced. Nor up to the time of Constantino can any evi- 
dence be found of any admitted authority of the church 
or Pope of Rome over the other churches. All that we 
discover is an effort of a few popes to assert such author- 
ity, which was at once and indignantly repudiated. 

It appears that though the bishops of the churches ad- 
vised with and consulted each other and met in synods 
during the third century, yet they were all regarded as 
equal and independent. 

This view of the case is very strongly confirmed by a 
forgery which was made towards the close of the third 
century, designed to give authority and system to the gov- 
ernment, rites, and usages of the churches at that time. 
It is called the Apostolic Constitutions and Canons ; and 
it aimed, by the high authority of the apostles, to establish 
and augment the power of each bishop in his own church 
22 



254 



THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED. 



and to regulate all church usages by definite rules. It was 
made in the names of all the apostles, and is the first great 
systematic and regular forgery of this kind. It is divided 
into eight books, and professes fully to describe the pow- 
ers of bishops, and of all the clergy, and the whole order 
of the church. But it is a most significant fact that in it 
there is found no place for the supremacy of the pope or 
of the church of Rome. 

It introduces all the apostles by name in the eiglith 
book, and, without hinting at the supremacy of Peter, 
represents them as individually ordaining constitutions. 
Moreover it is careful to represent them as independent 
and equal. There is over them no primate or prince. It is 
a book of two hundred and fifty-seven octavo pages ; and 
yet it may be searched through from beginning to end with- 
out finding any thing that in the least degree countenances 
the existing claims of the Papal corporation. On the 
other hand, we find in it the same views of the independ- 
ent authority and equality of all bishops, and of the 
mode in which they ought to concur in church unity, which 
are found iu the works of Cyprian. 

I have thus finished the first and earliest class of the so 
called popes. Two things are now undeniable : the first, 
that the testimony of this class is the most important ; the 
second, that the testimony of the earliest popes is decisive 
against all the claims of Rome. 

It now remains that I show how these claims were in- 
troduced and that the whole system is based on forgery 
and fraud. 

In order, however, to understand the course of events, 
it is necessary to glance at the state of the Roman em- 
pire during the period in which the second and third 
classes of popes lived. 

Any history will inform us that Constantino founded 



FOEMATION OF THE ROMISH CORPORATION. 255 

another seat of empire at Byzantium, greatly enlarging 
and adorning the original city, and calling it the city of 
Constantine, or Constantinople. 

Afterwards the empire was divided into the Western 
Empire, of which Eome was the capital ; and the Eastern 
Empire, of which Constantinople was the capital. 

In the year 476 the Western Empire fell, being con- 
quered by Odoacer, King of the Heruli. After this, till 
the year 800, Eome was sometimes under the sway of the 
barbarians, and at other times it was reconquered from 
them and ruled by the Emperor of Constantinople. 

Now, with regard to the Bishops of Eome during both 
of these periods,' two great facts are prominent : 1. They 
were not temporal rulers of Eome or of any other territo- 
ry, either as independent or as dependent sovereigns ; they 
were subject to whatever civil power ruled Eome, whether 
barbarian or Greek. 2. Their chief contest was with the 
Bishop of Constantinople for a certain kind of spiritual 
supremacy. 

In order to see how this came to pass, let us look at the 
condition of the second class of the popes — i. e., the Bish- 
ops of Eome. 

After the conversion of Constantine a new state of things 
was introduced among the bishops at large. Cliristianity 
liaving become the religion of the empire, the churches 
were favored and endowed and the bishops honored and 
exalted in power. In addition to this, they were regu- 
larly organized into hierarchal combinations according 
to the divisions of the empire. As in every province there 
was a chief city or metropolis, and as the bishop of this 
city had already been appointed metropolitan bishop to 
preside over the others even in the third century, so this 
system was confirmed by Constantine. 

Again : certain pr-Ovin"ces were united around the largest 



256 



THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED. 



cities of the empire into patriarchates, and the bishops 
of these cities were appointed patriarchs, and the metro- 
politans and other bishops were subordinated to them. 
Thus, around Rome, Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, 
and Jerusalem, after some changes, were patriarchates 
finally formed, and their bishops became rival patriarchs. 

Of these bishops, the dignity was according to that of 
the city in which their see was located. Of course the 
patriarch of old Rome stood highest ; the patriarch of 
Constantinople next ; and after them the patriarchs of Al- 
exandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem. 

During this period also the practice of calling general 
councils to represent the whole Christian world was in- 
troduced. 

Concerning this period three things deserve special no- 
tice : 1. That during it the civil authority of the emperors 
over the bishops was supreme ; and it was the emperors, 
and not any of the bishops, who called the general coun- 
cils. 2. In these general councils canons were made di- 
rectly at war with the present pretensions of the Bishop 
of Rome. 3. At the close of this period the Bishop of 
Rome was in imminent danger of losing the basis of his 
superior honor and influence by the downfall of Rome, and 
was obliged to invent a new basis on which to rest his 
claims, and also higher claims of jurisdiction. The im- 
portance of these statements will become more clear in 
view of the following narrative of facts. 

The first general council was that of Nice,, A. D. 325. 
This was called, not by the Bishop of Rome, but by the 
Emperor Constantino. Nor did the pope or his legate 
preside in it. Thus are all his present claims to call coun- 
cils and preside in them negatived. 

Again : the fifth canon of this council commanded all 
ecclesiastical causes to be finally decided in each province 



PORMATIOX OF THE ROMISH CORPORATION. 257 



by a proYincial synod — thus cutting up by the roots the 
present claims of the Pope of Rome to supreme jurisdic- 
tion and to receive appeals in all cases and from all quar- 
ters. Against this even Binius makes no reply. It is 
true that after this, under Pope Julius, a small provincial 
council convened in Sardica, the metropolis of Dacia, in 
Illyricum, introduced and authorized the practice of ap- 
pealing to the Pope of Rome. But a provincial council 
cannot lawfully repeal the canons of a general council, 
the Romish corporation being judge. Moreover, under 
Damasus, a council convened by the Emperor Theodosius 
at Constantinople expressed their disapprobation of the 
doings of the council of Sardica by renewing and con- 
firming the decision of the council of Nice. 

The Bishops of Rome, in fact, confessed the insufficiency 
of the decree of the council of Sardica by trying to palm 
it off as a decree of a general council. It was Pope Celes- 
tine (A. D. 422-32) who undertook this work of fraud. 
He attempted to impose upon a council of African bish- 
ops the canons of Sardica as being canons of Nice, in or- 
der to obtain the authority of that general council for his 
claim to the right of receiviug appeals. How early did 
Rome begin her great work of fraud ! The African bish- 
ops, however, at last detected the imposition, and severally 
rebuked the successor of Celestine for the nnprincipled 
conduct of his predecessor. 

Nor is this all. In the second general council of Con- 
stantinople it was decided that the Bishop of Constan- 
tinople had equal rank with the Bishop of Rome. 

In the fourth general council, at Chalcedon, it was 
expressly declared tliat the peculiar dignity and authority 
of the patriarchs of Rome and Constantinople were de- 
rived from the political importance of the capital cities of 
the empire. 

22 * 



258 



THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED. 



Here, then, we see the first three general councils all 
fundamentally at war with the present pretensions of 
Rome. What can be more decisive ? Notice in particu- 
lar that the doctrine of the council of Chalcedon is di- 
rectly AT WAR WITH THE ROMISH CLAIM OP SUPREMACY 
ON THE GROUND OF THE SUPREMACY OF PeTER. 

It became plain also that, if Rome should fall and Con- 
stantinople stand, the Bishop of Rome must also fall and 
the Bishop of Constantinople remain supreme. 

It was plain also that the downfall of Rome was at 
hand. Hence it became imperatively necessary to invent 
and establish a new basis for the claims of the Roman 
bishop which would survive that downfall. It was the 
province of Leo I., the Great, to perform this work by 
substituting the authority of Peter for the dignity of 
Rome. Of this change I shall elsewhere speak more at 
large. It is the first great point in the history of the 
Papacy. 

So much for the second class of popes. Let us pass to 
the third. During the three centuries that followed the 
downfall of Rome, the ideas of Leo as to Peter's suprem- 
acy and the claims of the pope founded thereon were 
germinating and preparing the way for a universal spirit- 
ual empire among the ignorant and credulous barbarians. 
Meantime three of the Eastern patriarchs were humbled 
by the onset of the hosts of Mahomet — those of Alexan- 
dria, Antioch, and Jerusalem. These cities fell before the 
invaders. Constantinople only remained. Meantime new 
• national churches in Western Europe were rising in the 
young and vigorous kingdoms founded by the German 
conquerors of Rome. Here then, as soon was evident, 
was to be the field of the spiritual monarchy; for Con- 
stantinople was declining, and destined at last to fall. 
During the greater part of this period Rome was subject 



FORMATION OF THE ROMISH CORPORATION. 259 



to the Emperor of Constantinople, but was so far distant," 
and was so exposed to the inroads of the barbarians, that 
it threw great responsibilities on the bishop, and sug- 
gested to him the idea of a temporal as well as a spiritual 
monarchy. 

We now come to the fourth class of popes. After the vi- 
cissitudes of the last period and the weakening of the East 
by the Mahometan powers a new centre of power arises in 
the West. The old Koman empire of the West, that for 
centuries had been dead, is reviyed once more ; and Charle- 
magne is at its head, crowned by Pope Leo III. Charles 
Augustus, Emperor of the holy Roman empire. 

We haye now come to the point where the principle of 
forgery is to disclose itself in all its magnitude in these 
ages of the deepest ignorance until the two great concep- 
tions of a spiritual and temporal monarchy were realized. 
Leo III. had deyeloped, as the foundation of the spiritual 
monarchy, the rock Peter ; and now the basis of the 
temporal monarchy was laid by a forged donation of Con- 
stantine. Moreover the plan of the spiritual monarchy 
was drawn, and its materials provided, and an effort made 
to erect it. By the fifth class of popes the fabric was 
erected and finished, and stood in great power till the 
time of the reformation. Under the sixth and last class 
of popes it has been assailed by the Protestants for three 
hundred years. In this assault we are now summoned 
anew to engage. Nor will it cease till the whole fabric 
is utterly burned with the avenging fires of God Al- 
mighty. 

Let us now approach and take a more particular view 
of the striKiture of the fabric. 

At the time of Nicholas L, A. D. 858-867, we discover 
the model of this new building prepared and the materials 
for it wrought out. Moreover the first efforts to erect 
it were made by him. 



260 



THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED. 



It is true that tMs exercise of power and claim of 
prerogatives was followed by a period of great Papal 
weakness and corruption — one of the most disgrace- 
ful in the history of the Papacy. The power of the 
vigorous German emperors was needed and was inter- 
posed to correct most scandalous abuses and immoralities 
and to regulate the head of the church ; and for a time 
the imperial power was greatly in the ascendant. Still, 
however, the principles and claims advanced by Nicholas, 
after the uniform policy of the popes, were never with- 
drawn. They were precedents, to be used as soon as cir- 
cumstances favored. They were seed sown, to come up 
and bear fruit at the destined time. Accordingly under 
Gregory YII. they came up in full vigor. Accordingly, 
if we pass on and survey the time from Gregory YII. to 
Innocent III., we find the building up and completed 
even as it was at the reformation and as it stands at 
this day. 

And now is it asked, Who planned this building? I 
answer, The Romish hierarchy, just as truly as they 
planned St. Peter's Church in the interval from Julius I. 
to Leo X. What is its great idea ? A corporation of 
bishops centralized around the pope, and bound to him 
by feudal oaths in accordance with the ideas of feudal 
times. The pope is the great feudal monarch of the 
church, and also an independent temporal ruler. He also 
claims to be the feudal lord of kings and emperors. Who 
erected this building ? I answer. The pope, the bishops, 
and their workmen. On what is it founded ? and what 
are its materials ? On forgeries entirely ; and these are 
its materials in all its parts. Of these forgeries, what are 
the chief ? The forged decretals of Isidore and the dona- 
tion of Constantino. Such is an outline of the course of 
events which resulted in the present Romish corporation. 



FORMATION OF THE ROMISH CORPORATION. 



261 



If we examine carefully the whole of this extended 
scheme, we shall find that its execution presupposed and 
demanded the four following great steps : — 

1. Bv a false idea of holiness, and a false sacramental 
system, to put the people into the hands of the clergy for 
salvation. 

2. To establish the principles early developed, of mo- 
narchical power in the bishops of the churches in numer- 
ous small spheres, by an early and primitive set of forge- 
ries in the name of all the apostles, and thus to hew out the 
component parts of the last great fabric by themselves, 
but not to raise the building or put together its parts. 

3. After these parts had been once centralized around 
difi'erent and coordinate centres in the Roman empire, to 
devise the plan for a new organization of them around a 
common centre in the feudal ages that should follow the 
downfall of Rome. To effect this, it was necessary to 
provide a model for the new building, and also the scaf- 
folding, coupling irons, girders, braces, pins, and bolts 
that were necessary to put the parts together and fix 
them in their places. 

The last step obviously was, — 

4. To raise the building, put it together, cover and 
paint it, and finish it inside and out. 

The first step of this process was accomplished in the 
early ages of the church. Even in the days of Paul the 
principles were at work. 

The second part was completed by the forgery of the 
Apostolical Constitutions, designed to establish by divine 
authority the augmented power, dignity, and honor of 
the bishops, but not to centralize them around the Pope of 
Rome. Thus the elementary parts of the great fabric 
were prepared ; but they were not so combined as to make 
a universal despotism. 



262 



THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED. 



The third part of the process was accomplished by first 
organizing these parts into coordinate hierarchies under 
the Roman government, and by then preparing the means 
for the consolidation of them into one by the forged de- 
cretals in the feudal times after old Rome fell, and to give 
this a basis on a temporal monarchy by the forged dona- 
tion of Constantino and other similar forgeries. 

The fourth part of the process was effected by such men 
as Nicholas I., Gregory YII., Innocent III., who labored 
assiduously from century to century till the fabric was 
completed. 

From this brief survey, it is evident that the period from 
Gregory YII. to the reformation, a period of four centuries, 
is eminently the Papal period. Parts of the system were 
developed in early ages ; but such a combination of them 
as distinguished this period, and the various inventions de- 
signed and essential to carry out and perfect the system, 
were not even dreamed of in the early ages. It is no less 
evident that fraud and forgery are the basis of the whole 
system, and that, to go to the bottom of the whole matter, 
we ought to take a radical view of the origin and nature 
of the pious frauds of the early ages and the forged 
literature of the middle ages. This I propose in its place 
to do ; but at present I can only give a brief account of 
the greatest of all forgeries ever known on earth, and on 
which, more than on all else, the present Romish corpora- 
tion is based. 

It appears that the principles needed were such as were 
suited to centralize the bishops around the pope, to give 
him supreme legislative and judicial power, and to make 
him an independent temporal monarch. 

But whence can they be derived ? From the Bible ? It 
is not pretended. From the authentic works of the fathers ? 
No ; they are not there. From previous forgeries ? No ; 



" FORMATION OF THE EOMISH COEPOSATION. 263 

these have had their day ; they are not sufficient. From de- 
cisions of general councils ? No ; these are all against the 
plan. How then ? They must be forged — newly, wholly 
forged. 

But in whose name ? The decretals are to be forged in 
the name of Clement, spoken of by Paul, and of those 
claimed as his successors in the early centuries in the chair 
of Peter, as the Pope of Rome. They are to be decrees 
issued by them to the churches, and they are to contain 
just what the popes or Satan needed at that time to carry 
out their plans of a centralized monarchy. The points at 
which they aim are, — 

1. To make plain the establishment of Peter's see at 
Rome, and the transmission of his power to the popes, and 
what that power was. 

2. To establish, and defend, and increase the power of 
the bishops against the laity, and to shield them from all 
attacks. 

3. Above all, to make the pope the great centre of the 
whole system — investing him with a plenitude of power, 
legislative and judicial. 

4. To give him independence of all temporal powers 
by the use of an earlier forgery in the name of Constantino. 

Accordingly the forgeries were made ; and in the names 
of those men and a forged council under Sylvester all 
these things were done, and the decretals were put forth 
as the decisions of God through the early popes, to be re- 
ceived and obeyed on penalty of eternal damnation. 

And now, perhaps, you will call for my proof of all this. 
It is found in the first volume of an edition of the councils. 
Here are the forged decretals themselves ; here is the do- 
nation of Constantine ; here is the forged council of 
which I spoke ; and they contain all that I have alleged. 
' But whose edition is it ? Is it authentic ? or is it a' 



264 



THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED. 



Protestant edition ? It is the first volume of Councils, by 
Severinus Binius, published at Cologne 1618, authenti- 
cated by a special bull of Pope Paul V., sanctioned and 
patronized by the Emperor of Germany, doubly approved 
and licensed by the Romish censors of the press. 

Its titlepage exhibits its character. On the top the three 
Persons of the Trinity are represented ; on one side of 
them is Peter, with his keys and coat of arms ; on the 
other, a representation of the temporal power wielded by 
the pope through the sword. On the right side the church, 
holding a cross, the pope's triple crown, and keys ; on the 
left side religion, with a crucifix ; and over each the Holy 
Ghost as a dove. At the bottom, the pope, at the head of 
the corporation of bishops, treading on a prostrate band 
of so called heretics ; and over them, in Latin, the inscrip- 
tion : " They are dead that sought the church's life." 

No one need doubt that this is a genuine Roman Cath- 
olic book. Besides, Binius, in his address to the magis- 
trates of Cologne, speaks of its contents as the basis of 
the Roman canon law, and calls on the pope to defend it 
against the assaults of innovators and heretics ; and the 
pope responds to his appeal, sanctions it by a bull, and 
says the book has given him great consolation, and that 
he believes that the audacity and the petulance of the ad- 
versaries of truth will be powerfully crushed by it, and 
their impostures and lies against the sound and orthodox 
doctrine of the holy fathers will be admirably detected. 

Let us now read and see. The heretics say that there 
is no proof that Peter ever was at Rome or had his see 
there, or a chair or throne there, or that he transmitted 
his authority, and no proof that he had any to transmit. 

Now, see how very easy it is for this book to crush the 
audacity and petulance of such adversaries of the truth. 

Here we find a long letter from Clement, Pope of Rome, 



FORMATION OF THE ROMISH CORPORATION. 



265 



to James the apostle at Jerusalem, establishing beyond 
dispute the genuine Romish doctrine on all these points. 
This great gap in history is thus completely filled. 

Clement opens the letter by pronouncing a eulogy on 
Peter, as an introduction to a statement of the mournful 
fact of his death. He then proceeds to say, " When he 
saw that his death was near, having assembled the breth- 
ren, he suddenly arose, and, taking me by the hand, spoke 
these words in the hearing of the whole church : ' Hear 
me, my brethren and fellow-servants. Inasmuch as the day 
of my death is at hand, even as I have been told by my 
Lord and Master, Jesus Christ, who sent me, I ordain this 
Clement as your bishop, and to him alone I assign the 
chair of my preaching and doctrine. He has been with 
me in all things from the beginning as an attendant, and 
thus has thoroughly known the truths which I preach. 
In all my trials he has been my constant and faithful com- 
panion. I have found him to be eminently distinguished 
for his love to God and to man, chaste, devoted to study, 
sober, kind, just, patient, and able to bear injuries even 
from those who profess to be students of the word of 
God. Therefore I give him the power of binding and 
loosing which was given to me by my Lord ; so that what- 
soever he shall decree on earth shall be decreed in heav- 
en. He shall bind what ought to be bound and loose what 
ought to be loosed, as one who perfectly understands the 
laws of the church. Hear ye him, therefore, knowing 
that whosoever shall grieve a teacher of the truth sins 
against Christ, and offends God, the Father of all, and 
shall therefore perish. But he who rules others ought to 
act the part of a physician, and not to be actuated by the 
fury of a wild beast.' " He then proceeds to state his 
own modest reluctance to assume so great a burden, and 
the urgency and decision of Peter in refusing to allow 
2:j 



266 THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED. 



Mm to decline tlie office. After this he records at length 
the charge of Peter to him, to the other officers of the 
church, and to the brethren, extending through six large 
folio pages. At the close he demands belief and obedi- 
ence of all, on penalty of the wrath of God and endless 
suffering in penal fire. 

Thus we have an account of this important transaction 
in detail, to the confusion of all heretics and to the honor 
and comfort of all genuine Romanists. In the same way 
these decretals set forth the power of the bishops. Of 
course they fully unfold the magnitude of the pope's pow- 
er, and set forth the doctrine that he is the summit of 
judgment in ecclesiastical cases, and that all who think 
themselyes injured may and ought to appeal to him. 

Thus Anacletus, the third pope, after setting forth the 
regular order of appeals to metropolitans and patriarchs, 
expressly says, " If difficult questions arise, let them, on 
appeal, be referred to the apostolic seat ; for the apostles 
decided this by the command of the Savior, that the great 
and more difficult questions shall always be referred to 
the apostolic chair, upon which Christ built the whole 
church when he said to the blessed Peter, the prince of 
the apostles, ' Thou art a rock,' " &c. 

Sixtus, the seventh pope, says, "If any one has been 
overthrown in judgment by any calamity, let him not hes- 
itate to appeal to this sacred and apostolic seat ; but let 
him take refuge in it as the head of the church, lest he 
should be condemned without cause or his church suffer 
wrong." 

Here, now, we have the highest authority ; for Anacle- 
tus, as appears from the Papal lists, was pope before Clem- 
ent, even in the very times of the apostles, and Sixtus is 
only the third after Clement. What more, then, could 
the most incredulous wish ? Moreover, as the pope need- 



FORMATION OF THE ROMISH CORPORATION. 26T 

ed to be independent of all civil law and jurisdiction, 
here is the donation of Constantino, the original basis of 
his claims to temporal power. 

In this, Constantine, after referring to his baptism by 
Sylvester, gives to him and his see all glory, all dignity, 
all imperial power ; also the palace of the Xateran, all 
imperial vestments, and the imperial dignity. He then 
adds, " That the Papal supremacy may not be degraded, 
but may excel in honor and power all earthly authority, 
we give and^grant, not only our palace as before said, but 
the city Eome, and all the provinces, places, and cities 
of Italy and of the Western regions, to the aforesaid 
blessed Pope Sylvester, universal bishop, and to his suc- 
cessors in the Papal authority and power. * * * For 
this reason we have thought it fit to transfer our authority 
and power into the Oriental regions, and in the best loca- 
tion in the Byzantine province to build a city in our name 
and there to establish our empire ; since where the head 
of the priests and of the Christian religion, ordained by 
the King of heaven, bears sway, there it is not right that 
an earthly emperor should have any power." 

But, lest the pope should seem to rest his jurisdiction 
on the decision of the imperial power, the authority of a 
council is needed ; and therefore, to make assurance 
doubly sure, here is the Roman council, under Sylvester, 
giving religious and political supremacy of judgment to 
the pope. 

Of this the twentieth canon is as follows : " Let no one 
judge the chief bishop ; since all prelates desire that jus- 
tice should be dispensed by the chief bishop. Let not this 
judge be judged, neither by the emperor, nor by the whole 
clergy, nor by kings, nor by the people." 

Is not this enough to crush the petulance and audacity 
of the enemies of the truth ? 



268 



THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED. 



And theo, think of the terrific sanction annexed to a 
disregard of the decretals — th-e wrath of Almighty God 
and eternal fire on all who will not believe and obey ! 

And now it may be asked, Were these things ever put 
forth to be believed ? I answer, Yes, and to be acted on ; 
and for eight long centuries they were believed and acted 
on. They furnished the very principles that the pope and 
his agents needed to put up the present structure of this 
corporation. They used them and put it up, and they be- 
came the very basis of the present Romish canon law. 

There was, as I have said, an 6arlier_ set of apostolic 
canons and constitutions forged and fitted to use for a 
time. But these, though useful in their day, did not contain 
the powers needed for the present exigency ; but, as they 
still had authority in some things, they and the Isidorian 
canons were wrought together by Gratian and an effort 
made to reconcile the contradictions. (Concordantia Dis- 
cordantium Canonum, 1. iii. 1151.) At last all of the old 
canon law that was inconsistent with the new was dropped, 
and the Isidorian principles in Gratian prevailed, and are 
now the very lifeblood of the Romish canon law, only it 
has been pushed to still greater extremes. And now, when 
I repeat that these are all forgeries, unmingled forgeries, 
without even a particle of truth to build on, I leave you 
to judge by what name such a deed should be called. 
Not a superficial forgery, but a forgery of a real terrific 
government, to the exclusion of the Bible — a fundamental 
forgery of the very system which they now attempt to im- 
pose on us, as ordained of God and essential to salvation. 
But it may be asked, Is there clear proof that all these 
things are forgeries ? I answer, There is proof so clear 
that even the ablest writers of the Romish church do not 
pretend to deny it. 

To be sure, this infallible corporation has never made an 



FORMATION OF THE ROMISH CORPORATION. 269' 

honorable confession ; nor have they yielded to the truth 
from the love of it, biit because they were forced to do it 
by evidence so strong that they knew that it would be ruin- 
ous to their cause to make issue on this point. First Lyra 
and Calvin, and then the Magdeburg centuriators, assailed 
them ; and if any one desires to see a perfect logical, criti- 
cal, and historical annihilation of their claims, let him read 
the analysis of them in the second and third centuries of 
the Magdeburg centuriators and in Calvin. Their works 
are in the Boston Athenasum and in the Harvard Library. 
Yet still Turrianus, a Jesuit, wrote five books in their de- 
fence ; and this book of Binius joins with Turrianus to 
defend them. The work of David Blondell, at Geneva, 
in 1628, ten years after this, settled the question. Baronius 
the cardinal, who wrote expressly to answer the Magde- 
burg centuriators, abandons the defence of them. Bellar- 
mine the Jesuit, a cardinal, and the great champion of the 
Romish cause, abandons the defence of them. Fleury, the 
great French historian, confessor to Louis XY., not only 
abandons the defence of them, but powerfully exposes their 
falsehood and pernicious consequences. I need not say 
that all Protestant historians do the same, and those who 
are neither Catholic nor Protestant do the same. Indeed 
these stupendous forgeries are as much an established and 
conceded fact in history as the English, American, and 
French revolutions. 

What, then, is the nature of the evidence that, against 
interests so prodigious and motives so violent, compelled 
the Romanists (not the popes, their decisions still stand) to 
abandon the defence of these foundations of their system? 
They were, in general, the utter absurdity on internal 
evidence of supposing them to have been written in the 
age in which they professed to have been written, and the 
absurdities and contradictions with which they are filled. 
23^ 



270 



THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED. 



The professed authors lived in ages of persecution and 
weakness and before the hierarchy was developed. They 
omit all that is proper to that age. Their writings are not 
adapted to console or strengthen those suffering, persecuted 
Christians to whom they write. Nay, they are intent on 
nothing but the great work of regulating a hierarchy that 
did not exist, increasing the power of the pope and his 
patriarchs and bishops and organizing them into a compact 
system of despotism. They profess to be the letters of 
successive popes during the first two centuries. They are 
all in the style of one man. They profess to have been 
written long before the peculiar Latin words and style of 
the middle ages were formed or known ; yet they are full 
of such words, and all in the style of those ages. It is as 
if, in a professed letter of Lord Bacon, we should find 
him talking of daguerreotypes, and steamboats, and rail- 
roads in the style and idiom of this day. They profess 
to have been written long before certain writers lived and 
certain laws were made ; and yet they freely quote 
those writers and those laws. This is as if a professed 
letter of Franklin should quote the laws of this state 
passed this year or the last proclamation of Governor 
Briggs. They profess to have been written when in fact 
certain doctrines and rites were unknown ; and yet they 
are full of those doctrines and rites. They profess to have 
been written before the occurrence of certain controver- 
sies respecting some of the very points decided by them^; 
and yet, though their authority would have been decisive, 
no one in those controversies ever appealed to them. 
Again : they profess to be written by men who must at 
least have known enough to date their own letters cor- 
rectly ; yet they are full of false dates ; so that, according 
to the dates, some were written before the authors were 
popes, and others after they were dead. 



FORMATION OF THE ROMISH CORPORATION. 271 

But the most notorious blunder of all is in trying to 
link the pontifical chain to Peter at Eome. Great pains 
is taken to do this thoroughly ; and jet, in his efforts to 
make assurance doubly sure, the forger makes Clement 
tell us that Peter, before his death, enjoined it on him to 
write to James, brother of our Lord, at Jerusalem, and 
inform him of all the facts. And yet it is a notorious 
fact that James died seven years before Peter ; and yet 
Peter, it seems, did not know of this fact, but supposed him 
still living at Jerusalem. He must have been a poor 
pope indeed. Our popes commonly find it out before 
seven years when a bishop dies. But Peter, it seems, did 
not yet know, when he ordained Clement Pope of Rome, 
that James, one of his brother apostles, was dead, though 
he had been dead seven years. 

The force of this is so great that it staggered Binius. 
He says, either this ei^istle was not written by Clement, or 
else the name James crept into the title instead of Simeon ; 
-which last he seems to rest on. A miserable subterfuge 
truly. Not only is the name James in the title, but in 
the body of the letter ; and not in one letter, but in two. 
Truly this is a splendid way, as the pope says, to crush 
the audacity and the petulance of the heretics. 

1. And now, who is responsible for all this? It may 
be said, not the popes and bishops, but Isidore and other 
forgers. Is it so ? I ask. Whose ends did these forgeries 
promote? whose power were they designed to increase? 
Was it not that of the bishops and popes ? Again : Who 
used them ? Did not the bishops and popes ? Again : 
Who sanctioned them ? Did not the successive popes ? 
and did not the bishops consent ? This, as Peter Dens 
tells us, binds the whole church. Again : Who gave these 
decretals such authority in the new canon law of Rome ? 
And have these things ever been retracted or undone ? 



'272 



THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED. 



2. What defence is made? Are the facts denied? 
They cannot be. The defence is, that the pope and bish- 
ops did not gain as much by them as is alleged. Then 
the guilt of a forgery is to be estimated by the amount 
gained : and, so far as you diminish the amount, you dimin- 
ish the guilt. Is ,this Eomish morality ? So it seems. 
But one thing is sure — it is not the morality of God. He 
that is unfaithful in little is unfaithful in much. But is it 
little for such a system to have had undisputed power for 
eight hundred years, with an authority greater than that 
of the Bible ? Let the candid judge. 

3. ^Yas no protest made in that long age ? There was ; 
but Papal power, and the terrors of excommunication, 
and the stake silenced it. . 

4. This point, then, renders my argument complete. 
Even if an infallible corporation was promised, this is not 
the one. Mr. Brownson's a posteriori scriptural argument 
only professes to reach this point — that Christ promised to 
establish an infallible corporation. His a priori argument 
only professes to prove that one is essential to faith. 
Neither argument is valid. But if they were, I still say, 
a forging and swindling corporation is not God's inter- 
preter or guide to heaven, but the object of his fiercest 
wrath. 

5. I have selected this as a case clear and momentous 
and of which the proof is undeniable ; but it stands not 
by itself. It is the part of a widely-extended system, as 
I shall show in its place. Satan did indeed come through 
this corporation with power, and signs, and lying won- 
ders, and all deceivableness of unrighteousness. They 
spoke lies in hypocrisy, having their consciences seared 
as with a hot iron. 

6. And now, can a corporation of which such are the 
actions be a teacher of honesty ? Do not actions speak 



FORMATION OF THE ROMTSH CORPORATION. 273 



louder than words ? I hesitate not to say that the Romish 
corporation, by these and similar forgeries and frands, 
founded her whole system on notorious falsehoods. What 
wonder, then, that, as I have shown, she became the great 
school of lying for the whole world ? Nor can a moral 
soundness on earth as to the truth be produced except 
by the formation of a sentiment of righteous abhorrence 
that shall consume her as burning fire. She is simply a 
political, religious, and commercial confederation, or cor- 
poration, banded against God and the truth ; and either 
God and the truth must give way, or she must be de- 
stroyed. Which do you think will be the result? 

T. Finally, to do this work God asks no brutal force, 
no persecution, no material fire. He needs only that 
brute force shall not be allowed to murder those who 
speak the truth ; and then he will kindle no fire but the 
fire of holiness and truth. But none does he need besides. 
This will consume the whole system to ashes and burn it 
to the lowest hell. 



CHAPTER IV. 



NICHOLAS I. AND THE FORGERIES AND FRAUDS OF THE 
MIDDLE AGES. 

We are prone to be incredulous when we see a phe- 
nomenon far bej-ond the range of our experience. We, as 
Protestants, have never sounded the depths of the sys- 
tem of pious frauds. We need, then, to pause and to look 
more deeply into the matter. No one can easily conceive 
how deeply it has affected the destinies of Europe and of 
the world. 

We propose, then, to aim at two points at once — -to 
sketch the character of the pope who first appealed to 
the forged decretals, that we may have a specimen of 
their use ; and then to give a view of the principles from 
which they originated, and a more full description of the 
decretals themselves and of their influence on the world,- 
as well as of the influence of the theory of pious fraud on 
which they are based. It will be seen that this was the 
key that opened the bottomless pit and let out the locust 
priesthood of Rome to ravage and devour the Christian 
world. 

In speaking of the forgeries of the middle ages, we 
take the Papacy of Nicholas I. as the point of vision — 
A. D. 858-867 ; in the first place because he first ap- 
pealed to the forged decretals, — the most wonderful in- 
stance of forgery ever known in the history of the church, — 

(274) 



THE FORGERIES OF THE MIDDLE AGES. 



275 



and then because lie is a fine exemplification of that spir- 
it of matchless impudence with which the leaders of the 
corporation of Rome have imposed their forgeries and 
frauds on the world in all ages. 

After Leo the Great, A. D. 440-461, and Gregory the 
Great, A. D. 590-604, and before Gregory YII., A. D. 
1073-1085, this same Nicholas is, beyond all doubt, 
the most remarkable of the pontiffs. And although his 
name has not the same bad eminence in the popular mind 
with that of the notorious Hildebrand, yet so great was 
the influence exerted by him on the course of events that 
Guizot does not hesitate to assert that the sovereignty of 
the pope really takes date from his reign. 

When he ascended the throne, the Popes of Rome, in 
their progress towards supremacy, were exposed to the 
resistance of four powers — the patriarch of Constanti- 
nople, their most dangerous spiritual rival and antago- 
nist ; the national churches of Europe, which had arisen 
since the invasion of the barbarians, especially those of 
Italy, France, Spain, and England ; the metropolitans, an 
ecclesiastical nobility who ruled the bishops of particular 
provinces ; and the civil power, whether imperial or royal. 

Three of these powers were represented by two men 
quite as remarkable as Nicholas himself. The chair of 
the see of Constantinople was filled by Photius — a man of 
vast native powers, of unrivalled scholarship and learn- 
ing, of exhaustless,energy and infinite ambition. Before 
he was raised to the patriarchal throne he had passed 
through almost all grades of civil office and promotion. 
• Without entering into the details of the warfare, it is 
enough to say that these ambitious rulers of the Eastern 
and Western churches met in fierce encounter. Nicholas 
excommunicated Photius, and Photius Nicholas ; and the 
great and incurable Greek schism was the ultimate result. 



276 



THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED. 



The national cliurches were represented in the person 
of the celebrated Hincmar, Archbishop of Rheims and 
Primate of France, the great churchman of the age, and 
the most learned canonist of the church. 

In his relations to his own bishops he also represented 
the ecclesiastical nobility, whom the pope needed to sub- 
due, in order to centralize all the bishops directly in 
himself. 

By the canons of the council of Sardica, A. D. 347, 
(which yet was not ecumenical,) the Papal power was 
extended, as we have said", beyond all precedent, and con- 
trary to all right, in merely allowing appeals at all from 
metropolitan councils to the Eoman pontiff, and for cen- 
turies after this council the African bishops forbade such 
appeals. And yet, even by these canons, the pope could 
only order a new trial in the province, aided by his 
legates, and, if need be, by delegates from neighboring 
provinces. (Bower, i. 57, 58.) Nor did the East or Af- 
rica ever receive this council ; nor did the council of 
Chalcedon sanction its decrees. 

This council, then, did not furnish the materials needed 
to establish and consolidate the Papal power. Such 
materials, in fact, did not exist. It was necessary to 
forge them, and thus to set up claims which should give 
to the pope the right of removing all such cases to Rome, 
to be tried before his own tribunal. And this point, too, 
was to be carried, and was carried, against such a man as 
Hincmar of Rheims. 

The regal power was also to be subdued, and was sub- 
dued, in the person of the feeble Lotharius. Had the 
regal authority been represented by a sovereign like 
Charlemagne, swaying with strong grasp the power of a 
united empire, the aggressions of Nicholas would have met 
with less success had he dared to engage in a warfare so 
unequal. 



THE FORGERIES OP THE MIDDLE AGES. 277 

But the vast dominions of Charlemagne had been divid- 
ed among his feeble descendants, and they had turned their 
arms against each other. Two grandsons and three great= 
grandsons of Charlemagne then sat on feeble thrones. 
The grandsons were Louis in Germany and Charles the 
Bald in France; the great-grandsons, Louis in Italy and 
Rhoetia, Lotharius in Burgundy, Alsatia, and Lorraine, 
and Charles in Provence. The rest of these could in a 
moment be stirred up to invade the dominions of any of 
the five whom the pope should excommunicate. Hence 
each was powerless in single combat with the pope. A 
single Papal anathema would become the signal for the 
invasion and subjugation of his territories by the others. 

Of course Nicholas felt that he was their master, and 
declared himself such. He singled out Lotharius as the 
object of an attack designed to demonstrate and estab- 
lish his power. Lotharius having married one wife, 
Theutberga, desired, like Henry YIII. in after days, to 
divorce her, and to take another, Waldrada. So in fact 
he did, and that with the countenance of his own bishops, 
led on by the Archbishops Gunthier and Teutgaud, a 
brother and uncle of Waldrada. Notice, now, the influ- 
ence of weakness in a king on the conscience of a pope. 
Charlemagne twice did the same thing. He also left 
illegitimate children behind him, as the fruit of his licen- 
tious excesses. But he was strong ; therefore the Papal 
conscience was undisturbed, and he was sainted. But 
Lotharius, his luckless descendant, was weak. This 
aroused the tender conscience of the pope ; and with 
apostolic zeal he declared war upon him for his manifest 
crime. 

Even so the conscience of Gregory YH. was very 
sensitive in the case of Henry lY., who was enfee- 
bled by a revolt in his empire, but was quite tor- 
24 



278 THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED. 



pid in the case of William the Conqueror, for he was un- 
conquerably strong. Yet William had sinned as griev- 
ously as Henry. At the synod of Winchester, A. D. 
1076, Gregory's law, enjoining the celibacy of the clergy, 
was very materially modified. The bishops whom Greg- 
ory had summoned to Rome were forbidden by William 
to obey the summons, to the very great annoyance and 
chagrin of Gregory. The king, too, continued to exer- 
cise the right of investiture, which in the case of Henry 
was so impious. Other presumptuous demands of Greg- 
ory were repelled with cold indifference. Yet no thun- 
derbolts of divine wrath were hurled from the pontifical 
throne against the royal sinner. Gregory prudently 
declined the encounter with so vigorous an antagonist, 
fearful of provoking him to terrific retaliation. Hence 
the spirit of the Papal policy in all ages is truly described 
in the old saying, in which we are iold that the chief 
end of man is to keep what he has got and to get what 
he can. The aggrandizement of their power has been 
their constant end in all ages. In pursuit of this, they 
have, as circumstances favored, steadily augmented their 
claims, regarding merely the principles of selfish policy, 
and never those of benevolence, honor, or truth. 

So Nicholas acted in the case of -Lotharius. Theut- 
berga solicited his aid. He undertook her cause, and, 
under pretext of defending her, put forth and established 
the most arrogant claims of Papal supremacy. He encoun- 
tered and defeated both king, archbishops, and bishops. 

Though the council of bishops at Aix-la-Chapelle, in 
accordance with the wishes of the king, had divorced her, 
this was nothing to Nicholas. He sent legates into Lor- 
raine, and, at a second council at Metz, caused the case 
to be reexamined by his legates. Lotharius bribed the 
legates, and the second council confirmed the doings of 



THE FORGERIES OP THE MIDDLE AGES. 



279 



the first. Nicholas was enraged, but not dismayed. By 
an extravagant assumption of power, by his own authority, 
he declared the decision null and void, and deposed at a 
blow the king's archbishops, Gunthier and Teutgaud, and 
he was- victorious. Though they struggled long and des- 
perately against him, they could not retain their office, 
but fell before his power. He also excommunicated 
Waldrada, and compelled Lotharius to take back Theut- 
berga. Thus did he effectually subdue the regal power. 

Twice also, in an ecclesiastical conflict, he defeated 
Hincmar ; and here he invested himself in the panoply of 
the forged decretals. Of these we may safely say that, 
of all the forgeries that ever disgraced the nominal fol- 
lowers of Christianity, they are the most gigantic in con- 
ception, successful in execution, and terrific in power. 
They changed the whole face of the Christian world, and 
are the spirit of the canon law and the basis of the Papal 
corporation to this day. 



THE FORGED DECRETALS. 

Gieseler fixes their composition between A. D. 829 and 
845 in France, and ascribes them to Benedict Levita, of 
Mentz. Guizot coincides. As to the direct agency of 
the popes in their composition, opinions vary. But 
Mosheim does not hesitate to regard the popes as their 
knowing and deliberate authors. He regards it as im- 
possible that such a forgery should have come into exist- 
ence and use, touching as it does all the springs of their 
influence and authority, without their knowledge and 
cooperation. At all events, Nicholas I. has the unenvi- 
able notoriety of having first appealed to them as au- 
thentic documents. 



280 



THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED. 



From him, till the reformation detected the cheat, — • 
that is, for about seven centuries, — they were appealed 
to without suspicion in the public affairs of the church 
and used by the popes to gain their ends without any 
material opposition. That we do not falsely charge 
Nicholas, facts show. None of his predecessors have 
referred to them. 

Leo IV., A. D. 850, does not include them among the 
standards of judgment. Nor does even Nicholas I., in 
863 ; but in 865, in his letters to all the French bishops, 
he defends their authority. — Gieseler, ii. 65-69. 

Nicholas was a fit leader in the enterprise of intro- 
ducing so vast a scheme of fraud for the purposes of 
hierarchical aggrandizement. He is an exact image of 
Gregory YII. or Innocent III. He was a man of un- 
common intellectual power, of great attainments for 
his age, and of gigantic energy of will. He was also 
ambitious to the highest degree, and strained his claims 
of supreme authority, infallibility, and irresponsibility to 
man to the highest pitch of extravagance and arrogance ; 
and having fought and gained a great battle with the 
civil power, in the person of King Lothaire II., on the 
points already specified, he also determined to gain a 
victory over the ecclesiastical nobility that came between 
the pope and the common order of bishops, and over 
national churches, in the person of Hincmar, Ardhbishop 
of Eheims, head of the French church. Hincmar had, 
without sufficient reason, suspended Bothade, Bishop of 
Soissons. He appealed to the pope. Hincmar disre- 
garded his appeal, and deposed him at the synod of 
Soissons. Rothade appealed again ; and Nicholas called 
up the affair at Rome, and by his own authority annulled 
the decision of the council and restored Rothade. Hinc- 
mar resisted, but was obliged to submit. 



THE FORGERIES OP THE MIDDLE AGES. 28,1 



To defend himself in this highhanded measure, Nich- 
olas appealed to the authority of the forged decretals, 
thus introducing the use of that vast system of fraud ; 
for this is the first example, as before stated, of an 
appeal to this forgery. 

On this occasion, also, he asserted the pseudo-Isidorian 
principles in full — that obedience was due to all Papal 
decrees as such, and demanded from all metropolitans, at 
their investiture with the pallium, an oath to this effect. 
Hincmar was the most learned canonist of the age ; but so 
low was the general standard of scholarship and of criti- 
cism at that time that he could not expose the forgery. 
He did not deny the genuineness of the decretals as he 
ought, but resisted their authority. Nicholas, of course, 
prevailed. 

But we should misunderstand Nicholas and the men 
of that age if we supposed that they suddenly, and by 
!0ne gigantic stride, so enormously overleaped the eternal 
barriers of truth, and, unaided and uninfluenced by pre- 
i ceding generations, at once completed, like Satan and 
ihis workmen in hell, the vast fabric of falsehood, so that 
at once " the ascending pile stood fixed in stately height." 
Neither communities nor individuals become suddenly 
thus corrupt. The conscience of the church had been 
'seared as with a hot iron, and she had spoken lies in 
hypocrisy, long before Nicholas. These portentous re- 
[ suits were but the mature fruit of seed early sown and 
[plants assiduously cultivated from almost the earliest 
ages of the church. One who comes fresh from the pure 
i morality of the New Testament, consigning all liars to 
the lake of fire, finds it impossible to utter the feelings 
of shame and disappointment which agitate the mind 
when the history of the opinions and practices of the 
early ages on the subject of pious frauds is first unfolded. 
24* 



282 THE PAPAL COl^SPIRACY EXPOSED. 

When, however, the power of these first emotions has 
somewhat subsided, and he attempts to take a philosoph- 
ical view of the facts, he finds in depraved human nature 
a deep foundation for such frauds, and soon discovers 
that a propensity to them is not limited to the Romish 
church, but that even in the Protestant world there is a 
constant temptation to fall into them. For a more full 
illustration of this dangerous tendency, we refer to an 
able essay of Archbishop Whately on Pious Frauds in 
his work entitled the Errors of Romanism traced to 
their Origin in Human Nature. 

We shall, therefore, proceed to speak of the general 
nature of pious fraud ; the early introduction of it into 
the Christian church ; of its pernicious effects in the 
earlier ages upon the literature and history of the Chris- 
tian body ; its most perfect development in the forged 
decretals, in the frauds of Baronius, Bellarmine, and 
others ; the subsequent power and state of the system 
among the Romanists, and finally among the Puseyites. 
In a field so extensive, only a general sketch can be ex- 
pected in a brief essay. 



PIOUS FRAUDS. 

Pious frauds, as defined by Whately, are those which 
any one employs and justifies to himself, as conducing, 
according to his view, to the defence or promotion of 
true religion." " There is in such conduct," he remarks, 
*' a union of sincerity and insincerity — of conscientious- 
ness in respect to the end, and unscrupulous dishonesty 
as to the means ; for without one of these there could be 
no fraud, and without the other it could in no sense be 
termed a piows fraud." 



THE FORGERIES OF THE MIDDLE AGES. 



283 



It is, therefore, only a specific case under the general 
diabolical maxim, that the end sanctifies the means — a 
doctrine which God has emphatically condemned, by de- 
claring that the damnation is just of all who teach, Let 
us do evil that good may come. 

Yet is it not still an oft-disputed question among us, 
whether a lie is in any case justifiable? E. g. : Is it right 
to lie to a highwayman in order to save our money or our 
life? So, too, the question may be raised, Was it not 
right for Kahab to save the spies by a lie, and for Jael 
to deceive Barak, the enemy of the Jews, in order to 
destroy him ? It may be asked. Did not Samuel deceive 
when he said, I am come to sacrifice to the Lord, when 
yet his real and main end was to anoint David as king ? 
Yet God directed him so to do. 

We refer to these things to show that, if the early 
Christians were tempted to use pious frauds, there were 
materials enough of easy self-deception at hand. And if 
any one will look at the temptation in advocating a great 
and good cause, even at this day, to select and state only 
facts adapted to excite the public mind, and produce lib- 
erality, and to slur over unfavorable facts, he will see 
how easy it is to be led to overstate or falsely to color 
facts, or to suppress what truly belongs to a full presen- 
tation of the subject considered. 

In addition to the case of temptation which we have 
stated, Whately supposes eight cases more, in which, 
even among Protestants, there might be a temptation to 
employ pious fraud. And even these he specifies, not as 
exhausting the cases, but as illustrating the extent and 
power of the temptation. He refers also to the heathen 
legislators and philosophers who encouraged or connived 
at a system of mythology which they disbelieved, in 
order that they might, through fear of the wrath of the 



284 



THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED. 



gods and of Tartarus and tlie hope of Elysium, keep the 
populace in order. Their statesmen deluded and over- 
awed the populace with oracles and prodigies, just as the 
priests of the Romish and Greek churches have with 
false miracles and revelations. The present use of fraud 
and forgeries to gain important political ends or to save 
the country we need but advert to as of the same general 
kind. And many even now attempt to use similar influ- 
ences in governing children. 

Also he remarks, that when the process has once com- 
m.enced, and some falsehood has been wrought into a sys- 
tem regarded as in the main sound, there is a temptation 
to tolerate it, through fear of greater evil in destroying 
reverence for the whole system or of losing influence in 
assailing it. We thought it necessary to take this gen- 
eral view before coming to exhibit the development of 
these principles in the primitive church. 

The mass on whom Christianity operated had been al- 
ready degraded by such maxims and practices in the 
pagan world ; and they were not thorouo-hly and in a 
moment purged of their pollutions when they became 
Christians. Moreover a higher power of fraud prepared 
through them the way for results of which they little 
dreamed when they began their work of promoting truth 
by the use of fraud. Let us now consider the early in- 
troduction into the church of the system of pious frauds. 

Mosheim states (Cent. II., vol. i. p. 130) that the Pla- " 
tonists and Pythagoreans deemed it not only lawful, but 
commendable, to deceive and to lie for the sake of truth 
and piety. The Jews in Egypt learned from them this 
sentiment even before the days of Christ. From both 
this vice early spread among Christians. Books were 
forged under the names of eminent men ; also the Sibyl- 
line verses were fabricated by some Christian, in order 



THE FORGERIES OF THE MIDDLE AGE3. 



285 



to bring idolaters to believe in Christianity. The pa- 
gans were indignant at this forgery, which they ascribed 
to Christians. (See Origen contra Celsum.) He also 
tells us (Cent. III., pp. 183, 184) that a similar mode of ar- 
gument was used by Origen and others. From such 
principles came the forged Apostolic Canons and Con- 
stitutions, the Recognitions of Clement, and the works 
of Dionysius the Areopagite in the fourth and fifth cen- 
turies. The system of pious frauds was adopted even 
by Ambrose, Hilary, Augustine, Gregory Nazianzen, Jer- 
ome, and Sulpitius Severus, in the Life of St. Martin. 
Thus was the way prepared by Satan for the deepest 
delusions of the middle ages. 

Gieseler (vol. i. p. 298) gives passages from Jerome and 
John Cassian in which the principles of the system are 
unfolded. The same fathers who thus wrote and prac- 
tised ascribed accommodation to Jesus and the apostles. 
Cassian argues its lawfulness from the case of Rahab and 
of Delilah. Though they used lies, they were aiming at 
great and good ends. Gieseler tells us, (vol. i. p. 298,) 
speaking of spurious writings up to A. D. 200, that their 
purpose was to encourage the persecuted, to convince the 
unbelieving, and to give the sanction of antiquity to cer- 
tain opinions. 

For such ends old spurious writings of the Jews were 
interpolated — e. g., the Book of Enoch and the Fourth 
Book of Ezra. Others were forged — e. g., the Testament 
of the Twelve Patriarchs, the Ascension of Isaiah, the 
Shepherd of Hermas, the Books of Hystaspes, the Acts 
of Pilate, the Sibylline Prophecies, &c. All these are 
designed to promote millenarian views. 

Waddington (pp. 54, 55) traces many of the forgeries in 
the names of apostles and fathers to an imitation of 
pagan philosophers, who, without attempting delusion, in- 



286 



THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSEU." 



trodiiced ancient worthies as uttering their own opinions. 
[ Christianity, too, he tells ns, was then in the hands of 
Greeks and Africans, to whom our maxims of morality 
were not known. " We shall never," says he, " do justice 
to the history of our religion unless we continually bear 
in mind the low condition of society and morals existing 
among the' people to whom it was first delivered." 

Some of the passages adduced by Gieseler we will 
translate. Jerome (Epist. xxx. al. 1., to Pammachius) 
thus defends the propriety of lying in certain cases : "It 
is one thing to write controversially, another didactically, 
or dogmatically, (yviivaoTixug, doyixanxus.) In the former 
the controversy is not restricted by fixed principles, and 
he who is replying to an antagonist may state now one 
thing, now another ; may argue as he pleases ; may de- 
clare one thing, but act on the opposite supposition ; may 
pretend to show bread (as the saying is) when he has in 
his hands nothing but a stone. But in the second kind 
of writing, openhearted frankness, and, if I may so say, 
candor and ingenuousness, are necessary." 

For evidence that they were disposed to allow far too 
great a latitude of accommodation, {oixovoma^) attributing 
it in the same extent to Jesus and the apostles, see 
Suicer, S. v. (fvyxa,Ta3a(fig. — T. ii. p. 1067. 

In this way Jerome wished to explain the passage, 
(Gal. ii. 11, seq.,) but was opposed by Augustine, whose 
principles were more strict. (See his writings On Lying 
and Against Lying. See correspondence on this point 
between them, Epist. Hieron., Ep. Ixv. Ixvii.-lxxiii. Ixxvi.) 
Chrysostom On the Priesthood, vol. i. 5, lays down very 
questionable principles concerning the lawfulness of de- 
ception in certain cases. He was followed in this by his 
pupil, John Cassian, Coll. xvii. 8, seq. ; e. g., cap. xvii. : 
" Therefore we ought to regard and use falsehood as if it 



THE FORGERIES OF THE MIDDLE AGES. 



287 



■were of the nature of hellebore, which, if taken when 
threatened by a deadly disease, is salutary, but if without 
the necessity caused by 'such danger, results in immediate 
death. For God not merely investigates and judges our 
words and actions, but also regards our purpose and 
intention. But if he sees that any thing has been done 
or promised by any one for the sake of eternal salvation 
and with that perception of results which proceeds from 
divine contemplation, although it appears to men shame- 
less and unjust, yet he, regarding the interior piety of the 
heart, will consider in his decision, not the sound of the 
words, but the purpose of the will ; for the end of an 
undertaking and the disposition of the agent .are to be con- 
sidered. In this way some, as has been remarked before, 
have been able to secure justification by lying, (e. g., Ra- 
hab. Josh. ii. ^) and others, by telling the truth, have in- 
curred the penalty of eternal death, (e. g., Delilah, Judg. 
xvi.") 

Yet at this time they tithed mint, anise, and cumin. 
The neglect of ecclesiastical forms was a great crime. 
All oaths, the taking of interest, self-defence, capital pun- 
ishments, and second marriages were reckoned as crimes. 
In comparison with the violation of mere ceremonial laws, 
a disregard of the weightier matters of truth and justice 
was deemed a venial offence, or even a virtue, if meant 
for good ends. Hence we can see how men could come 
to such a state of mental delusion as to perpetrate for 
good ends the abominable imposition of the invention of 
the cross. Hence we can see how even Ambrose could 
conspire with a butcher to hide bones and blood under 
the pavement of his church, and then pretend to be in- 
formed by a special revelation that the relics of the mar- 
tyrs Protasius and Gcrvasius, of whom ijo one had ever 
heard before, were hid there, and that he should dig 



288 



THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED. 



tliem np, and prepare for them a shrine, and transfer their 
remains to it with the solemn mockery of prayer and 
preaching, and that miracles of healing should be 
wrought by these remains, and that the bones and blood 
should be sold for a great price. Was not the end a 
good one ? Was it not important that the church of 
Milan should have influence and wealth ? Are not these 
means of doing good ? But, alas ! she had no martyrs. 
Hence there could be no shrine, no saint worship, no 
miracles of healing, no casting out of devils, and, above 
all, no precious gifts. Why, then, should there not be an 
invention of martyrs as well as an invention of the 
cross ? To be sure, if it were to be found out, it might 
seem a shameless fraud to man ; but God would judge 
in view, not of the words, but of the purpose of the heart. 

Hence, too, the working of false miracles for a good 
end admitted of an easy justification, and no less the 
forging of saiflts and'the ascription to real saints of mir- 
acles which they never wrought. Hence the deluge of 
saints' lives- and miracles with which the world was 
flooded and the Romish world still is flooded ; for in 
Alban Butler these forged saints keep their place even 
to this day. Hence, too, we find in leading men, both in 
the Latin and Greek churches, shameless lying for any 
ends that interested men could convince themselves were 
good ends. 

The celebrated Photius, no doubt, regarded it as of 
great importance that he should be patriarch of Constan- 
tinople for the glory of God and the good of the church. 
Hence he did not hesitate to give to the emperor a letter 
in the name of Ignatius severely censuring the emperor, 
and another in the name of the pope in favor of Photius, 
which Eustralius, arriving at Constantinople in the habit 
of a monk, had delivered to him. And yet there is no 



THE FORGERIES OP THE MIDDLE AGES. 289 

reason to doubt that lie had caused these letters to be 
forged in order to get Ignatius, whom the pope declared 
to be the true patriarch, out of the way. Lotharius (or 
Bishop Adventinus of Mentz for him) did not hesitate to 
forgo the tale that he was married to Waldrada, when 
young, by the command of the Emperor Lotharius, his 
father, and was afterwards forced by Count Herbert to 
marry his sister ; and Bishop Adventinus related it as a 
fact in the council of Aix-la-Chapelle. He also wrote for 
him a lying letter to the pope, and finally lied to excuse 
himself to the pope. 

When we meet with such things in the leading charac- 
ters of the nominal church, when we find in Gregory YII. 
a system of deliberate lying, adapted and designed to re- 
duce the world to one vast feudal monarchy, of which he 
should be the head and the kings of the earth his vassals, 
instead of feeling that we are in the kingdom of God, 
we seem to be involved in the deepest gloom of hell it- 
self, and are, for a moment, overwhelmed with horror and 
amazement. But, when we trace the system to its origin, 
we see that a single key is enough to open the bottomless 
pit ; and, as we read the corrupt maxims of some of the 
leading doctors of the church, we seem to see a star fall 
from heaven to earth, and take the key of the bottomless 
pit and open it, and to behold the smoke as of a great 
furnace arising from the pit, till the sun and the air are 
darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit. Never was 
there such a lesson, as it regards the danger of tampering 
with the truth even in the least degree, as may be read 
in the history of the church. Let us look at the perni- 
cious effects of the system of pious frauds on the litera- 
ture and moral condition of earlier and of subsequent 
ages. Waddington, speaking of the literary forgeries that 
corrupted and disgraced the ante-Nicene church, says, 
25 



290 THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED. 



" Their immediate effect Avas exceedingly injurious." "We 
will hint at some of their effects. 

1. They tended to degrade the moral character of the 
age by the circulation of degrading materials of thought. 
The truths of God's word are pure, simple, elevating. 
The devil might well exult to see the people of God neg- 
lecting such heavenly food and turning away to feed on 
false gospels. Sibylline oracles, spurious saints' lives, and 
degraded and degrading acts and decisions of the apostles. 

2. They have immeasurably injured the interests of all 
subsequent ages. The welfare of all ages is involved in 
the correctness of the historical and literary documents 
of the early ages. Nowhere is historical truth more im- 
portant ; and yet, through the influence of the system of 
pious frauds, nowhere is it harder to be discerned. The 
decision of whole controversies is prevented by the doubt- 
ful state of early documents. To illustrate this, it is suf- 
ficent to refer to the interminable controversies as to 
what Ignatius actually said concerning bishops. We know 
that his letters have been more or less interpolated for 
purposes of pious fraud ; but who can tell how much ? 
By this uncertainty whole controversies are kept alive 
that otherwise would easily be settled. Let any one read 
Binius, Baronius, and Bellarmine, and then try to strike 
out all that is spurious and forged in their writings, and 
he will find himself in a labyrinth at once. 

3. The earlier forgeries furnished principles and prece- 
dents for worse deeds ; and very soon the lowest depths 
were reached by men speaking lies in hypocrisy and hav- 
ing their consciences seared as with a hot iron. Bad as 
are the forged decretals, they are no worse, except in ex- 
tent, than many preceding forgeries. Nothing can be 
worse than the attempts by Popes Zosimus and Celestine 
to palm off the canons of Sardica as those of Nice be- 



THE FORGERIES OP THE MIDDLE AGES. 



291 



cause the council of Nice was an ecumenical council 
and that of Sardica was not. 

4. They provoke God to abandon the church, and thus 
to send strong delusion to believe a lie. Whately well 
says, that how far any one who propagates a lie may be 
himself deceived or may be guilty of pious fraud, and 
how far a fraud is a pious fraud, God only knows. Prob- 
ably most have begun in wilful deceit and advanced to- 
wards superstitious belief. Those who report a lie often 
believe it. The curse on those who do not love the truth 
is strong delusion to believe a lie. Thus a man intent on 
an end may first deceive himself into a belief that it is 
a good end, and then that it is right to lie to gain it, and 
finally that the lie is a truth. Many are conscientious in 
the sense that they have led their conscience to approve 
the purposes of the will, and not that their conscience 
has led their will to form its purposes. They persevere 
in wrong till they convince themselves that it is right. 



THE FORGED DECRETALS. 

Let us now consider the most perfect development of 
this system in the forged decretals. 

We have already taken a brief view of these. Let us 
more fully develop the great mystery of iniquity. 

The ultimate result of them was twofold — to concen- 
trate the bishops round the pope and subject them to his 
authority ; and to raise the ecclesiastical above the civil 
power. 

To accomplish this, they seemed to propose to defend 
the bishops against the tyranny of their own metropoli- 
tans and of their civil rulers. ■ Before the Papal despot- 
ism was established bishops were tried and judged by the 



292 



THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED. 



bisliops of a metropolitan province under their metropol- 
itan, and without appeal to the pope. Of conrse they 
were liable to injustice ; and if the metropolitan were 
imperious and haughty, as was often the case, they were 
to expect often to experience it. Hence very likely the 
origin of the canons of the council of Sardica. But as 
these only authorized the pope to command a new trial in 
the province, the main and ultimate power was, after all, 
not in the pope, but in the metropolitan. But to remove 
the case to the court of Eome, and to put the power of a 
final decision into the hands of the pope, would effectu- 
ally break down the power of the metropolitans. And 
if at any time they were guilty of abusing that power, it 
would create in the bishops a wish to see it done. In 
like manner bishops might wish a defence of their spirit- 
ual power against their kings. 

Things were tending in this direction when the forged 
decretals made their appearance. They purport to be 
decretal letters written by the early popes, from Clement 
downwards to Gregory the Great. They were published 
in a collection with other canons. This collection of can- 
ons and decretals, in the name of St. Isidore, consisted of 
three parts. 

1. Fifty-nine pseudo-Isidorian decretals, besides two 
from Clement to James, already in existence, going down 
to Melchiades. 

2. Canons of councils, chiefly genuine Isidorian. 

3. Thirty-five pseudo-Isidorian, mixed with genuine, 
epistles from Sylvester to Gregory the Great. 

The bishops universally received them. They were like 
the horse which was so intent on conquering the stag that 
he took the bridle into his mouth from the man, and the 
saddle upon his back, and allowed him to mount, and was 
from that time a slave. The pope conquered the metro- 



THE FORGERIES OF THE MIDDLE AGES. 



293 



politans tlirongb the bishops ; and as soon as he had done 
this the bishops were ipso facto enslaved. These decretals 
seemed to favor the patriarchs, and yet subjected them to 
the pope's authority to act in his name. All that was 
taken from the metropolitans fell finally to the Papal see. 

To complete the picture, we will briefly restate some con- 
nected facts. The donation of Constantine was promul- 
gated in the time of Adrian I., and was based on, and con- 
nected with, a fabulous narrative of the baptism and cure of 
Constantine of the leprosy at Rome by Pope Sylvester. In 
token of gratitude Constantine withdrew from Rome and 
founded Constantinople, and gave to the pope Rome, Italy, 
and the provinces of the West. 

The history and decrees of a council that never met 
were also forged. It was said to have been held at Rome 
in the days of Sylvester : the aim and result of it were to 
exalt the power of the pope. 

We have given portions of these precious documents 
from the history of councils by Binius, published under 
the sanction of the pope, and defended by Binius even 
after Calvin and others had exposed the forgeries of the 
decretals. Indeed the Papacy held on to them till they 
were irresistibly wrung from its unwilling grasp. 

The influence and effects of these decretals are thus set 
forth by the learned civilian Daunou, a Roman Catholic : 
" So early as the end of the eighth century the decretals 
of Isidore had planted the germs of pontifical omnipo- 
tence. Gratian gathered the fruit of these germs and 
made them still more fruitful ; the court of Rome being- 
represented as the source of all irrefragable decision, as 
the universal tribunal which decided all differences, dissi- 
pated all doubts, cleared up all difiiculties. She was con- 
sulted from all quarters by metropolitans, by bishops, by 
chapters, by abbeys, by monks, by lords, by princes even, 



294 



THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED. 



and by the untitled faithful. There was no limit to the 
pontifical correspondence but such as was imposed by the 
tardiness of the means of communication. The affluence 
of questions multiplied bulls, briefs, epistles ; and from 
those fictitious decretals ascribed to the popes of the first 
ages there sprang up and multiplied, from the time of Eu- 
gene III., thousands of responses and decrees which were 
but too authentic. All affairs — religious, civil, judiciary, 
domestic — then were more or less embarrassed by pre- 
tended connections with the spiritual power. General in- 
terests, local controversies, individual quarrels all went 
in the last resort, and sometimes in the first instance, to 
the pope ; and the court of Eome acquired this influence 
over the details of human life, (if we may so speak,) which 
is of all others the most formidable, precisely because each 
of its effects, isolated from the others, appeared to be of 
no great consequence. Isidore and G-ratian transformed 
the pope into a universal administrator." 

The agency of Gratian in this matter, to which Daunou 
here refers, was in brief this : In 1152 he compiled a col- 
lection of canons, commonly defSignated as the "Decree 
of Gratian." It was called by him the concord of dis- 
cordant canons, {concordantia discordantium canonum.) The 
study of the civil law had just been revived in Italy by the 
discovery of the Pandects of Justinian. But, as the eccle- 
siastical power was fast gaining the ascendency over the 
civil power, a similar storehouse of the principles of eccle- 
siastical law was needed. Such the Decree of Gratian 
became. It is divided into three parts : one devoted to 
principles and ecclesiastical persons ; the second to judg- 
ments ; the third to things. 

Of its character as a code Daunou thus speaks : " Rep- 
etitions, impertinences, disorder, errors in proper names, 
mistakes in quotations are the least faults of the compiler. 



THE FORGERIES OF THE MIDDLE AGES. 



295 



Mutilated passages, chimerical canons, false decretals, all 
sorts of lies abound in this monstrous production. ^Its 
success was only the more rapid on that account. It j^as 
explained in the schools, cited in the tribunals, and in- 
voked in treaties. It had almost become the public law 
of Europe, when the return of light dissipated by slow 
degrees the gross imposture. By it the clergy were held 
not to be amenable to answer in the secular tribunals ; the 
civil powers were subjected to ecclesiastical supremacy ; 
the state of persons or the acts which determine it were 
regulated, validated, or annulled absolutely by the canons 
and the clergy ; the Papal power was enfranchised from 
all restrictions ; the sanction of all laws of the church was 
ascribed to the holy see — that see itself being independent 
of the laws published and confirmed by itself.'' 

By whom Gratian was employed to perform this work 
the facts just stated sufficiently show. He was but a tool 
of the Papacy. Through him the man of sin erected his 
throne by reducing the forged decretals to a legal system. 
A translation of a few passages from Gratian will give a 
clear idea of the prevailing spirit of the work. He is 
teaching the doctrine that the pope is not of necessity 
subject even to his own laws, and that if he submits to 
them it is only by a voluntary humiliation by way of ex- 
ample to others. 

"As Christ, the Lord of the Sabbath and of the law, 
submitted himself to the law of the Sabbath, so the pon- 
tilfs in the seat of supremacy manifest reverence for the 
canons established either by themselves or by others 
authorized by them ; and, by humbling themselves to obey 
them, they augment their authority, so that they may 
present them to others as their supreme law." Again : 
" Sometimes, either by new enactments, or definitions, or 
by contravening the canons, they proclaim themselves 
lords and creators of the laws." Again : " Upon others 



296 



THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED. 



is imposed the necessity of obedience to the canons ; but 
it has been made manifest that in the chief pontiffs there 
is an authority to obey at their pleasure, so that, by ob- 
serving their own decrees, they may show to others that 
they are not to be contemned. This they do after the ex- 
ample of Christ, who himself observed as an example, and 
that he might thus sanctify them, those sacraments, the 
observance of which he enjoined upon his church.'^ 

Here we see the roots of those highest claims of Papal 
omnipotence, and of dispensing above right, and contrary 
to right, which subsequent canonists carried to a still 
more blasphemous extreme — exalting the pope not only 
to an equality with God, but above all that is called God 
or is worshipped. 

All these principles, first drawn from the fountain of 
the forged decretals, still slumber in the canon law, like 
a sword returned for a time to its sheath, or like the re- 
tracted and hidden claws of a tiger. But let the state of 
the nation be so changed, and circumstances so favor that 
it can be done, and the sword will be again unsheathed, 
and the pontifical tiger will again rend the subjugated 
nations with his claws. 

To translate long passages from these forged decretals 
would be tiresome alike to the translator and to the 
reader. To form a conception of their matter and style, 
we need only to suppose an ecclesiastic, capable of writing 
in the Latin style of the middle ages, first raising the in- 
quiry. What is needed to exalt the ecclesiastical entirely 
above the civil power? and finally to concentrate all 
power in the pope, and then writing all that he could con- 
ceive of to his heart's content in the name of the ancient 
popes. A few specimens must suffice. Hear how, in the 
first epistle of Pius, A. D. 147, the bishops are defended 
against lay influence: "Let not the sheep censure their 



THE FOEGERIES OF THE MIDDLE AGES. 



297 



shepherd, nor the laitj accuse a bishop, nor the populace 
reprehend him ; since the disciple is not above his lord, 
nor the servant above his master. But the bishops are 
to be judged by God, who has chosen them as his eyes. 
* * * Of this the Master has given an example, when 
he drove from the temple the buying and selling priests, 
by himself, and not by another." The judgment of God 
on bishops is of course to be exercised through the pope. 
Hence the forger tells us, through Zephyrinus, A. D. 208, 
Ep. i., " Let not the patriarchs or primates who try an 
accused bishop pass a definite sentence till it has been 
• sanctioned by apostolic (i. e., Papal) authority." He then 
proceeds to give rules as to accusers, witnesses, and the 
trial, and then concludes : " Let the ultimate determination 
of his case be brought to the apostolic seat, that there it 
may be issued. Nor let it be finally determined before it 
is sanctioned by the authority of the pontiff, as was or- 
dained by the apostles or their successors." We notice 
here, as through all of these forgeries, a constant repetition 
and superabundant fulness, as if the writer were deter- 
mined to make assurance doubly sure in all things re- 
lating to the Papal authority. 

To concentrate all power at Eome, we find passages 
like this : " The Roman church, through the merits of 
Peter, consecrated by the word of the Lord and sustained 
by the authority of the holy fathers, holds the primacy 
among all the other churches. To her the highest con- 
cerns, trials, and complaints of bishops, and also the im- 
portant interests of all churches are to be referred as to 
the head." — Yigilius, Ep. ad Profuturum. 

Again : Zephyrinus, Ep. i., says, " All, and especially 
the oppressed, must have recourse to the Roman church, 
and appeal to her as to a mother, that they may be nour- 
ished by her breasts, and defended by her authority, and 



298 



THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED. 



delivered from their oppressions ; for the mother neither 
can nor ought to forget her child." 

One great object of these forgeries is to give authority 
to Papal decrees as such, investing them with the power 
of laws, thus making the pope an independent legislator 
and an absolute despot. Hence the forger in the name of 
Damasus, Ep. iv., says, " All the decretals and the statutes 
of all our predecessors which have been promulgated con- 
cerning the ecclesiastical orders, and the discipline of the 
canons, it is our pleasure and decree that you and all 
bishops and priests shall observe ; so that, if any one shall 
infringe them, let him know that it is an unpardonable* 
offence." 

The direct result of all this was to exalt the canons of 
the pope to an equality with the canons of general councils. 
Hence in the canon law both kinds are mixed up indiscrim- 
inately, and, as Daunou well remarks, the forged decretals 
became the source and model of innumerable and genuine 
Papal decretals in subsequent ages. Indeed these lying 
forgeries have been so thoroughly digested and absorbed 
into the system of the canon law that to this day they 
constitute its vital principles, its very life's blood. 

At the hazard of being tedious we will give a few 
more extracts from these forgeries, showing in what man- 
ner, by impudent and reiterated assertions, the power of 
the Papacy was established. The forger in the name of 
Damasus, Ep. vi., says, " It is lawful for the metropoli- 
tans, with their provincial bishops, to investigate the 
causes of the bishops and other weighty ecclesiastical 
matters, provided the bishops are all present and agree ; 
but to define and decide definitely on such points, or to 
condemn bishops without the authority of this seat, is not 
lawful ; for all, if it be necessary, ought to appeal to 
it and be sustained by its authority ; for, as you know, 



THE FORGERIES OF THE MIDDLE AGES. 



299 



it is not Catholic to convene a synod without its sanc- 
tion." 

The conduct of Hincmar in deposing Eothade, to which 
we have before adverted, shows plainly that he, though a 
learned canonist, had admitted no such principles as 
these. But when Nicholas encountered him, nullified his 
proceedings, and restored Eothade, he fell back upon 
these and similar passages of the forged decretals for his 
defence ; and certainly nothing could be better fitted to 
accomplish his purposes. It seems as if this passage had 
been forged with satanic foresight for the very case in 
hand. Nor is it to be wondered at that Nicholas exerted 
himself to the uttermost to give authority to a system by 
which he was invested with such absolute power. 

In the decretum of Gratian the forged materials were 
mixed up with the old and genuine canon law for the 
sake of hiding the cheat. In his endeavors to reconcile 
the discordances thus produced, Gratian of course de- 
cided in favor of the new Papal law ; and as, during the 
subsequent study of the canon law, new contradictions 
came to light, the popes gave new decisions, deciding of 
course in accordance with the principles of the forged 
decretals. As these new decretals multiplied, it became 
necessary to reduce them to system. Hence in 1234 
Gregory IX. employed the Dominican Raimund da Pen- 
nafort to compile a new collection of decretals in five 
books, almost entirely composed of later decretal, and 
in accordance with the spirit of the forged decretals. 
To this Boniface VIII. added a sixth book in five parts. 
To these, five books of Clementine Constitutions, by 
Clement Y., were added, and also certain Extravagantes 
of John XXII. and five books of Extravagantes Com- 
munes. Such was the spirit, such the origin, and such 
the progress and completion of the canon law. The 



300 THE FAFAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED. 



leaven of the old canon law, retained in the decretum of 
• Gratian, so far as it was' inconsistent with the new law, 
was purged out, and the Papacy was placed on the basis 
on which it has since stood even to this day. 

It is, indeed, a specimen of lying and forgery on a 
sublime scale ; and when we see all Christendom trem- 
bling before the frown of the pope, and the intellect of 
all Europe engaged in studying and commenting on this 
law, then we see completed the highest and most as- 
tounding result of the forged literature of the middle 
ages. The little fountain head of pious fraud which 
broke out in the early ages has given rise to a mighty 
river, emptying itself into a boundless ocean of unfathom- 
able delusion and fraud. 

How great the influence of these forgeries has been 
may be learned from the confessions even of candid 
Roman Catholics. The testimony of Daunou has been 
given. Fleury, though not so severe, is no less explicit 
in testifying to their pernicious influence on the church. 
"With him coincides Bossuet ; and the celebrated Charles 
Butler, in a brief account of the Eoman and the canon 
law, in an appendix to his Life of the Chancellor 
D'Aguesseau, does not hesitate to say, " To the com- 
pilations of Isidore and Gratian, one of the greatest mis- 
fortunes of the church, the claim of the popes to temporal 
power by divine right, may in some measure be attrib- 
uted. ^ That a claim so unfounded and so impious, so 
detrimental to religion, and so hostile to the peace of 
the world should have been made is strange ; stranger 
yet is the success it met with.'' 

It is no less strange that so intelligent a man could 
not discover that all the remaining claims of the pope 
are alike unfounded and impious, detrimental to religion, 
and hostile to the peace of the world. 



THE FORGERIES OF THE MIDDLE AGES, 301 

In view of such facts it is that Gibbon severely, but 
justly, remarks that the Vatican and Lateran were an 
arsenal and manufactory, which, according to the occa- 
sion, have produced or concealed a various collection of 
false, or genuine, or corrupt, or suspicious acts, as they 
tended to promote the interests of the Romish church. 
Before the end of the eighth century, some apostolical 
scribe, perhaps the notorious Isidore, composed the decre- 
tals and the donation of Gonstantine — the two magic 
pillars of the spiritual and temporal monarchy of the 
popes. (Yol. iii. 339.) "This humble title, ^yeccator! was 
ignorantly, but aptly, turned into ^mercator ' — his merchan- 
dise was indeed profitable : a few sheets of paper were 
sold for much wealth and power. The edifice has subsisted 
after the foundations have been undermined." — P. 340. 

To form any adequate idea of these abominable and 
blasphemous forgeries, they must be read. They are writ- 
ten in an assumed style of conscientious sanctity. Their 
authors pretend to be watchmen for souls, accountable to 
God for their fidelity ; and the penalty of disobedience is 
eternal damnation. Yet the impious forgery betrays itself 
on every page. Of the events and wants of their own age 
they say and seem to know nothing. With the hierarchi- 
cal claims of the distant future centuries they are perfectly 
familiar. They do not know the times of their own lives, 
or pontificates, or deaths. Some date their letters before 
they were popes — some after they were dead. They 
quote the Latin Yulgate long before it was made. They 
quote writers who in their day had not written, laws 
that had not been made, councils that had not been held, 
and use words and a style of language not then in exist- 
ence. Nor were they ever quoted before the ninth centu- 
ry amid controversies on which they would have been 
decisive. Such are the documents which Nicholas I. pro- 
26 



802 



THE PAPAL CO^^SPIRACY EXPOSED. 



mulgated in the name of God, and which for centuries 
ruled the world. 

Let us, in conclusion, consider the subsequent state and 
power of the system. The church of Rome has indeed 
retreated from certain positions, from which she has been 
irresistibly driven. But never has she abandoned the 
practice of the system ; and, if any have seemed in her 
name to condemn it in principle, this condemnation is 
but a new specimen of pious fraud. She cannot condemn 
it. It is wrought into her whole history. Moreover it is 
a case of necessity to that church to lie. Her existence 
depends on it. All true history is against her. Hence we 
see a constant tendency to rely on and defend forged 
documents in Baronius, and to forge lies in Bellarmine, 
as in his infamous narrative of the death of Calvin ; also 
in Audin's Life of Calvin the same course is pursued. In 
the same spirit, a stupendous enterprise was once under- 
taken to alter and expurgate all the fathers on the great 
scale. 

Hence Platina's History of the Lives of the Popes has 
been altered and corrupted by Papal scribes ; so that only 
the Venice edition, 1479, and the editions published in 
Holland, 1640, 1645, 1664, are worthy of confidence. 
Hence we may account for the omission in some editions 
of the statements concerning Gregory YII. which De 
Cormenin quotes. Hence, too, the systematic writing of 
false histories for the use of Jesuit schools ; and the falsi- 
fication of Ranke's History of the Popes, of which he 
complains, and the circulation and use of such falsified 
copies in Jesuit schools as genuine. Pagi says, " Much has 
been said of the popes by other historians, but very little 
by their own." 

Bower adds "that the very little has been thought 
too much ; whence some of them, Platina in particular, 



THE FORGERIES OF THE MIDDLE AGES. 



303 



have been made in all tlieir editions since tlie middle of 
the sixteenth century, to speak with more reserve, and to 
suppress or disguise some truths they had formerly told." — 
Vol i. p. 15. 

When to the influence of principles so corrupt is added 
the bias of party rage, as in the long strifes of the Guelphs 
and Ghibelines, or in the great schism, one can easily im- 
agine the extent to which lying would be carried, and how 
much the difficulty of coming at the truth in many cases is 
augmented. As these parties fought with the sword, so, 
says Bower, did historians with more rage "fight with their 
pens ; and the same persons, especially the popes and em- 
perors, are by opposing writers painted in very different 
colors. 

Indeed so thoroughly has this leprosy of pious lying 
struck through the Romish church that all who are approx- 
imating to her seem naturally to fall into it. Of this we find 
a striking example in the English Puseyites, who are re- 
viving the doctrine of economy, or accommodation — viz., 
lying so far as is necessary to keep their hearers from re- 
volting from their sentiments till they can lead them along 
step by step to Rome. Hence Newman's fierce assaults 
on Rome, as he begun his Puseyite movement, were all a 
pious fraud, according to the principles of the economical 
system, to be recanted when they had enabled him to 
corrupt all whom he could. On the same principles, Je- 
suits in secret may join any church and profess any thing 
in order to work in the dark- for Rome. 

No maxim has ever been so constantly carried out in all 
ages as that to lie for the Romish church is not only no 
sin, but a virtue of the highest kind. On this principle 
pious frauds are at this day knowiugly carried on in Mex- 
ico, as described by Waddy Thompson, in Rome, and in 
other parts of the Romish world. Such a system under 



304 



THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED. 



the government of God cannot last forever ; but it has a 
great temporary power. 

For a hierarchy of priests, many of them men of educa- 
tion and great intellectual power and learning, and trained 
to lie on system, to sustain their own corporate power and 
wealth, can keep the masses subjected to their sway in 
Romish countries in utter ignorance of the facts of history, 
as is universally the case, and by bold assertions can 
paralyze to a certain extent the power of history in 
Protestant countries. 

The bold inpudence of Pope Zosimus staggered all the j 
assembled bishops of Africa. He declared certain canons 1 
of the provincial council of Sardica to be canons of the 
council of Nice, though it was held twenty years before 
that of Sardica. 

The canons of Sardica were in none of the African 
copies of the council of Nice. The African bishops pro- 
posed to send for copies to Constantinople, Alexandria, 
and Antioch. 

" It matters not,'' replied the conscious legate, " whether 
or not those canons are to be found in your copies, or in- 
deed in any other. You must know that the canons and 
ordinances of Nice, which have been handed down to ns 
BY TRADITION and established by custom, are no less bind- 
ing than those that have been conveyed to us by writing.'' 
A fine specimen of matchless impudence ! But so has Rome 
made tradition in all ages her grand storehouse of lies. 

The African bishops would not be so deluded. They 
sent for the copies as proposed, exposed the fraud, and 
held up the pope as a barefaced impostor. 

Bower well calls it one of the most impudent and bare- 
faced impostures recorded in history ; yet Bishop Kenrick i 
has not a word of censure for the pope, and tries, like Ba- I 
ronius and Bellarmine, to gloss it over as a mistake. ■ 



THE FORGERIES OP THE MIDDLE AGES. 305 



The truth is, on the principles of that church there was 
no sin in the lie, but merely in attempting it in so bungling 
a way as to be found out and exposed. So did Purcell. 
of Cincinnati, twice lie, and was publicly exposed. 

But multitudes of other impostures, equally gross and 
impudent, were not found out, and made the Papal power 
what it is ; and the same impudent system of lying will 
still be pursued, for nothing else can preserve it from ruin. 
This general view should not, however, lead to despair of 
a final victory of truth nor to historical scepticism. Let 
a man look at one of our counterfeit detectors containing 
scores of pages of counterfeits. He might at first say, It 
is of no avail to try to distinguish between forged and 
true bills. But with care and practice it can be done. 
So is it in history. Many forgeries have been so exposed 
that none dare now advocate them ; and, notwithstanding 
the delusions and lies of the hierarchy, God has foretold, 
under the symbol of the false prophet, his doom. He 
shall be taken by the Son of man and cast alive into the 
lake of fire burning with brimstone. 

Clearly then all Protestants are simpletons who do not 
judge Romanist ecclesiastics in view of their principles 
and their past history. He that is simple believeth every 
word of such men ; but the prudent looketh well to his 
going. 

In conclusion, I would say that the good of our nation 
requires a more full exposure of this subject than we can 
now make, with the facts of history classified and ar- 
ranged. We are contending with a matchless system of 
compacted fraud, and need to have a perfect understand- 
ing of it and its principles and deeds. 
2G* 



CHAPTER V. 



THE ROCK PETER AND LEO THE GREAT. 

We have seen that in the forged decretals the rock 
Peter was made the foundation of the immense fabric of 
fraud and forgery. We have seen, also, by v/hat course 
of corruption the Romish ecclesiastics had been prepared 
for such a forgery. 

But the success of that great forgery implies that an- 
other work had been previously performed ; it implies 
that the public mind had been prepared to receive the 
forgery by a preceding course of claims and precedents 
on the part of the popes which the forgers could irabody 
and establish by the pretended decretals of the earlier 
popes. 

We have also said that Leo the Great, who closes the 
second division of the popes, was the main agent in de- 
veloping and establishing such claims and pretensions. 
We intimated, moreover, our purpose to consider more 
fully his agency in thus laying the deepest foundation of 
the great Papal fabric. 

We will make him, as we already have Nicholas I., a 
sort of mountain top from which to survey the widely- 
extended field of the Papal campaigns. 

Nicholas, who developed and first used the forged de- 
cretals, lived, as we have seen, in the deep midnight of 
the dark ages. The whole fabric of the western Roman 

(306) 



THE ROCK PETER AND LEO THE GREAT. 307 

empire had been long broken up, the empire of Charle- 
magne had arisen, its power had waned, and the interests 
of Europe were then in the hands of his feeble successors 
and of the Pope of Rome. 

Let us now go back to the time just before the great 
breaking up of the Western Empire and see how Leo pre- 
pared the pretended bark of Peter to launch into the 
great deluge of the northern nations that immersed Eu- 
rope in a second flood, out of which has arisen the new 
world of modern Europe. 



LEO THE GREAT. 

History is made up of two elements — facts which 
transpire in this world and the relations of those facts 
to the universal system. That there was such a man as 
Leo the Great ; that he lived in the fifth century ; that he 
was a leading spirit of his age ; that he was engaged in 
divers controversies and aimed at certain definite ends, — 
these and similar things are facts easily ascertainable 
and capable of a definite and precise statement ; nor with 
regard to the leading facts of his life is there any con- 
troversy. 

But when we pass to the consideration of the relations 
of these facts to the universal system we enter at once a 
new world. Whilst generations of men die, higher and 
permanent orders of spiritual beings meet our eyes. Each 
generation of men has its principles, ends, and aims ; but 
no common intelligible human plan runs through the his- 
tory of all ages. To discover such a plan we must pass 
into the invisible world and study the designs of Him of 
whom, and through whom, and to whom are all things, 
and who worketh all things after the counsel of his 
own will. 



308 



THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED. 



To give the relations of the facts of history from this 
point of vision is by no means so easy as to state the 
facts. It leads ns at orcg upon controverted ground. 
The moment we raise this question as it regards Leo we 
meet the great controversy of the age. To the partisans 
of , Rome he is Leo the Great — to their opponents he is 
but a prominent founder of a terrific and malignant anti- 
Christian system which was matured and perfectly devel- 
oped by Nicholas L, Gregory VIL, and Innocent III. 

God only can write a perfect history of the world from 
this point of vision, and at the day of the revelation of his 
ju^t judgment he will do it. Meantime there is to be even 
on earth, under the guidance of his Spirit, an historical 
day of judgment. On no subject has more illusion and 
fraud been practised, especially since the days of Christ, 
than on the history of this world. But the day cometli 
that shall burn as an oven. God is yet to reign ; and he 
will reign by the truth, and not by delusion and fraud. 
No one, therefore, is more concerned in promulgating and 
establishing correct views of the history of this world than 
he. In all our inquiries, then, let us entreat him to dissi- 
pate all delusions, to open our eyes, to purify our hearts, 
and to touch our lips as with a coal from his own altar. 

In the historical sketch which we have undertaken to 
present we have chosen an individual to stand as the cen- 
tral figure of the picture ; and yet our main design is, 
through him, to evolve the principles and spirit of the 
Romish corporation in his age. 

Leo was chosen Bishop of Rome A. D. 440, and died 
A. D. 461, after an eventful reign of twenty-one years. 
From 423 to 455 Valentinian III. was Emperor of the 
West. Maximus, Avitus, and Majorianus ruled during the 
remaining six years of his life. From 408 to 450 Theo- 
dosius II. was Emperor of the East ; Marcian from 450 to 



THE ROCK PETER AND LEO THE GREAT. 309 



457 ; Leo, also called the Great, from 457 to 474. Sucli 
were his contemporary civil rulers. 

As to his parentage and early education little is known. 
He was a Roman by birth. His father's name was Quinc- 
tianus. His first appearance in history is just before his 
choice as Bishop of Rome. He was sent by Pope Sixtus 
HI. to effect a reconciliation between Aetius and Albinus 
in Gaul, of which we shall soon speak. During his ab- 
sence Sixtus died, and Leo was chosen in his place. 

The main characteristic of the age of Leo was the ap- 
proaching destruction of those institutions of Roman civil 
society which paganism had formed. Concerning these 
Guizot remarks, " The civil society of the Roman world, 
to all outward appearances, seemed Christian equally 
with the religious society. The great majority of the Eu- 
ropean nations and kings had embraced Christianity ; but 
at the bottom the civil society was pagan. Its institutions, 
its laws, its manners were all essentially pagan. It was 
entirely a society formed by paganism, not at all a soci- 
ety formed by Christianity. Christian civil society did 
not develop itself till a later period, till after the invasion 
of the barbarians. It belongs in point of time to modern, 
history. In the fifth century, whatever outward appear- - 
ances may say to the contrary, there existed between civil 
society and religious society incoherence, contradiction, 
contest ; for they were essentially different both in their 
origin and in their nature." 

" I would pray yoii never to lose sight of this diversity ; 
it is a diversity which alone enables ns to comprehend the 
real condition of the Roman world at this period." 

This political society was enervated, and rapidly ap- 
proaching dissolution and death : slavery and the deep 
degradation of the masses of the people were the main 



310 



THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED. 



causes of this state of tilings. The barbarians were God's 
instruments for breaking in pieces that old fabric which 
was tottering to its fall and ready soon to vanish away. 

Hence the names of Alaric, Attila, and Genseric begin 
to figure on the page of history ; and the Yandals, Franks, 
Goths, Yisigoths, and Burgundians, under the guidance 
of such leaders, issue from the North to execute the pur- 
poses of God. 

A period of political dissolution and chaos is to ensue, 
during which a new religious society is to exercise a 
centralizing and organizing power. Of this society Leo 
claimed to be the divinely ordained head ; and his whole 
energies were put forth to develop and establish the prin- 
ciples of the Papal monarchy. Never was there a point 
in which a great mind, swayed by ambition, and not con- 
trolled by a regard to truth, had a finer opportunity to 
exercise a creative and organizing power. 

In various ways the Bishop of Eome had already ob- 
tained great influence. But he was by no means monarch 
of the Christian world. Indeed never had there been a 
time when he had rivals so powerful as were now the pa- 
triarchs of Alexandria, Antioch, Jerusalem, and especially 
of Constantinople. 

The power of these bishops originated from two sources 
— one political, the other spiritual. The former was 
in fact the only source of the extraordinary and despotic 
powers they were intent on establishing. Of this we 
have a full illustration in the history of the see of Con- 
stantinople. The Bishop of Byzantium was at first but a 
suffragan to the Bishop of Heraclea, exarch of the dio- 
cese of Thrace. 

But Constantino made Byzantium a new Rome ; and lo, 
the Bishop of Byzantium soon becomes the leading patri- 
arch in all the East ; for it was not fit that the emperor's 



THE EOCK PETER AND LEO THE GREAT. 311 

bishop should be inferior in rank or power to any of the 
bishops of the East. His central political position, too, 
gave him the same means of augmenting his power which 
the Bishop of Eome enjo}^ecl at the West ; and diligently 
and skilfully did he use them, and rapidly did he gain on 
the Bishops of Rome in the race. 

And if the political basis of the bishop's power were to 
continue the main one, it was plain that if Old Rome fell, 
and New Rome stood, the patriarch of Constantinople 
might finally win in the race. 

It was certainly a critical period. Some master spirit 
was needed fully to develop and establish the doctrine 
that the power of the Bishop of Rome had a higher ori- 
gin than that of the Bishop of Constantinople ; so that, 
even if Old Rome fell, his spiritual kingdom might not 
only remain unshaken, but take her place and rise upon 
her ruins. 

Such a master spirit was needed. In Leo he was found. 
A Roman by birth, of powerful intellect, indomitable will, 
dauntless courage, vivid imagination, great power of emo- 
tion, a finished education, extensive learning, a majestic 
person, and fervid eloquence, he was beyond all doubt 
immeasurably superior, in most of those elements which 
give power over mind, to all the men of his age. He is 
worthy to be placed side by side with Nicholas I., Greg- 
ory YII., and Innocent III. 

But, considering the claims of the see of Rome to be the 
great preserver of the faith on earth, it is not a little re- 
markable that Leo is the first theological writer of any 
ability which the see of Rome produced, the first who 
has left any important work for the benefit of posterity, 
if we omit the apostle Peter and the evangelical and 
primitive Clement. 

Before Leo, the leading champions of the faith did not 



312 



THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED. 



come from the see of Rome. So far from it was the fact, 
that the faith would have been betrayed had it been left 
solely to the Bishop of Rome. Athanasius, Bishop of Al- 
exandria, was the great pillar of the doctrine of the Trin- 
ity ; whilst Pope Liberius signed an Arian creed. Augus- 
tine, Bishop of Hippo, was the great champion of the 
doctrine of human depravity and the sovereign grace of 
God ; whilst Pope Zosimus became the champion of Pe- 
lagianism till compelled by the power and perseverance 
of Augustine to recant. Popes Julius and Felix, long be- 
fore Eutyches, had promulgated the Eutychian doctrine, 
which the whole energy of Leo and after ages labored in 
vain utterly to overthrow and eradicate. 

The great writers of the East and the West, Augustine 
and Basil, Athanasius and Ambrose, the Gregories and 
Chrysostom, had adorned their respective sees ; whilst 
Rome remained in a state of comparative intellectual and 
theological barrenness till Leo arose. 

But the moment he appeared on the stage the centre of 
both ecclesiastical and intellectual power was no doubt at 
Rome. With a strong hand and a determined will he 
grasped all the great questions of the age, and made an 
impress on the world that is felt to this day. He gave a 
decided turn to theology and to the current of events in 
favor of the see of Rome ; nor, judging hy their standards, 
have the partisans of that see erred in calling him Leo 
THE Great. 

The acts of his life may be arranged in five classes : — 

1. Those which related to the existing interests of the 
Roman empire as endangered by the barbarians. 

2. Those which relate to the powers of the see of Rome. 

3. Those which relate to the vindication and establish- 
ment of the orthodox system of faith. 

4. Those which relate to the use of force in the sup- 
pression of heresy. 



THE ROCK PETER AND LEO THE GREAT. 313 

5. Those which relate to the discipline of the church. 

It will be seen at a glance that all his acts except those 
of the first class related to principles destined to exert a 
vast influence on all future generations. Whatever may 
be thought of the character of the Romish church, no one 
can deny that it was for ages the centre of intellectual and 
ecclesiastical power for Christendom. No point of vision 
gives so comprehensive an insight into the religious and 
political condition of the Christian world for ages. An 
emotion of sublimity, therefore, fills the mind as we stand 
at the fountain head of this great river of destiny and 
watch the elements that are from time to time mingled 
with it by the presiding spirit at Home. 

1. We have excepted Leo's acts of the first class from 
the list of such as involve principles destined to affect 
future ages. They were indeed in his own day more 
thought of ; they occupy a more prominent place in the 
histories of the age ; but they affected simply the question 
of the earlier or later doivnfall of Kome. That mistress 
of the world was thoroughly corrupt. Her measure of 
iniquity was nearly full. All that Leo could do for her was 
for little time to delay her fall. When, A. D. 440, under 
the weak rule of Yalentinian, the safety of Rome was en- 
dangered by the alienation of Aetius, the greatest Roman 
general of the age, and Albinns, a Gallic lord of great 
power, and this at the very time when the empire was 
overrun by the Goths, Burgundians, Franks, and Huns, 
Leo was chosen, as qualified above all others by eloquence, 
sagacity, and tact, to reconcile them. To effect this, he was 
sent on an embassy to Gaul. He fulfilled his mission with 
such success that he stood conspicuous in the eyes of his 
own generation as a great peacemaker and the savior of 
the empire from impending ruin. 

Again : A. D. 452, when Attila and his Huns, liaving been 
27 



314 



THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED. 



driven by Aetius out of Gaul, had invaded Ital}^, and, hav- 
ing captured Aquileia, Pavia, and even Milan, the imperial 
residence, were preparing to lay siege to Rome, Leo was 
sent at the head of an embassy to him, that he might exert 
the power of his effective eloquence and address upon the 
mind of the terrible leader of the barbarians. Without 
the aid of a vivid imagination, it is easy to invest this 
transaction with a peculiar and impressive dramatic in- 
terest. All hearts were dismayed ; even Aetius trembled 
before the barbarian hosts ; when lo, the gates of Rome 
open, and her bishop, in sacerdotal robes and with majes- 
tic aspect, goes forth to try the force of intellectual and 
spiritual arms against the victorious leader of barbarian 
hosts. To the natural and inherent interest of the scene 
religious fiction has sought to superadd a new intensity 
by introducing a miraculous appearance of Peter and 
Paul to second the eloquence of Leo. It is enough, how- 
ever, for us to know that the embassy was successful. 
Attila retired, and Rome for a time was saved. It is 
added by others that a pestilence in the camp of Attila, 
the invasion of his own country by Marcian, the prospect" 
of speedy and powerful reenforcements for the Romans, 
and the stipulation of an annual tribute of two thousand 
pounds of gold were the real influences that gave power 
to the eloquence of Leo. Be this as it may, the glory that 
he has derived from the success of this mission has been 
great. Yet, after all, it'accomplished little for Rome, and 
still less for the world. It affected, as we have said, no 
great principle, and it caused but a brief delay of the 
downfall of Rome. Even the same Leo at a later date in 
vain exerted his eloquence to deter Genseric from the sack 
of Rome. Summoned by Eudoxia, the widow of Yalentin- 
ian, to avenge her on Maximus, who had slain her husband, 
assumed his throne, and compelled her to marry him, he 



THE ROCK PETER AND LEO THE GREAT. 



315 ^ 



plundered Rome, and carried away, not only vast treasures, 
but also many Romans as slaves. At the request of Leo, 
he only consented to save the city from the flames. 

2. Let us now come to those acts of Leo that related to 
principles destined to increase in power till they should 
ingulf all other power in their tremendous vortex. We 
have already remarked that the power of the Bishop of 
Rome was originally based upon the political supremacy 
of Rome. Even Newman, in an argument designed to 
conduct his disciples into the bosom of Rome, is obliged 
to admit that the doctrine of the " regalia Petri " was unde- 
veloped in the early ages. He intimates, indeed, that it 
slumbered in the record^ ready to be developed when needed ; 
but it is a very suspicious fact that the new basis of the 
claims of the pretended succession of Peter was not dis- 
covered till the political basis seemed to be in danger of 
being subverted by the superior political power of the 
Bishop of Constantinople. Then the hidden sense of 
" Thou art Peter " began to open rapidly on the mind of 
Leo ; and with imperious energy he thus sets it forth in his 
letter to the Bishops of Gaul : " It was the will of our 
Lord that all nations should hear the truth through the 
apostolic trumpet. Yet it was also his pleasure that the 
blessed Peter should preside over the other apostles in the 
discharge of this duty ; so that all divine gifts should flow 
to the body from him as the head, so that none could 
partake of the blessings of the kingdom of God who 
should dare to depart from the rock Peter. This office 
of Peter Christ proclaimed when he said, ' Thou art Peter, ^ 
&c. Thus the structure of the eternal temple, by the 
wonderful grace of God, was made to rest on the rock 
Peter." In all this there is now no originality ; but in the 
days of Leo there was need of his master mind to give 
currency to this doctrine. With reference to him Gieseler 



316 



THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED. 



says, " By exalting the authority of the apostle Peter, and 
hy tracing all his rights to this source, as well as by his 
personal qualities and good fortune, he did more than any 
of hi3 predecessors in extending and confirming the power 
of the Romish see." 

Gieseler also, in section ninety-tAVO, says that " this view 
was first fully developed by Leo." Bower, however, 
has shown, from a letter of Innocent I. (A. D. 401-417) to 
Alexander, Bishop of Antioch, that the merit or de- 
merit of first developing this idea belongs to Innocent. 
In that letter he derives the prerogatives, privileges, and 
jurisdiction of the Roman see from St. Peter. In view 
of this Bower remarks, " Innocent may be justly said to 
have pointed out the ground on which the unwieldy fabric 
of the Papal power was afterwards built." Still it is 
true, as Gieseler asserts, that Leo first fully developed 
this view. Thus, then. Innocent I. originated it and 

ACCUSTOMED THE EARS OF MEN TO HEAR IT. LeO FULLY 
developed and to HIS UTMOST POWER ENFORCED IT. 

Nicholas L, by the great forgery, added to its power. 
Gregory YII. erected the fabric, and Innocent III. 
reigned in the meridian splendor, of Papal glory. 

Nor was Leo at all deficient in that unprincipled bold- 
ness and energy which were essential in order to enforce 
such claims of authority. This was especially seen in his 
encounter with that distinguished Romish saint, Hilary, 
Bishop of Aries and Exarch of the seven provinces of 
Narbonne. A council of bishops in which Hilary pre- 
sided had deposed Celidonius, Bishop of Besan9on. He 
appealed to Leo. Hilary denied the right of Leo to re- 
ceive the appeal and review their proceedings ; Leo main- 
tained it. The fifth canon of the council of Nice con- 
demned the usurpation of Leo. Hilary went to Rome to 
protest against it. Leo arrested and confined him there, 



' THE ROCK PETER AND LEO THE GREAT. 317 

and appointed a day for reviewing the case. Hilary es- 
caped from confinement and fled to Aries. Leo, enraged 
at his contumacy, reexamined the case, and, against noto- 
rious facts, declared Celidonius innocent, and restored 
him to his office as bishop. Nor did he stop here : he 
excommunicated Hilary, deprived him of all jurisdiction, 
suspended his episcopal functions, and abolished the 
dignity of exarch, formerly conferred on the see of Aries. 
Even this did not suffice : he wrote to the Gallic bishops 
a slanderous letter designed to blast the character and 
destroy the influence of Hilary. It was in this letter that 
the doctrine of the divine supremacy of Peter and his 
successors was first fully developed. His next step was to 
enlist the imperial power on his side. The weak Valen- 
tinian was by him deluded, misinformed, and thus led to 
confirm by an imperial edict all of his arrogant claims, 
and to state, in notorious contravention of facts, that the 
Bishop of Rome had always exercised the powers claimed 
by Leo. This edict occurs in Leo^s works, and no doubt 
came from his pen. There is nothing in the forged de- 
cretals of a later age more thoroughly unprincipled than 
this conduct of Leo. Hilary never yielded to him, but 
died under his ban ; yet he continued to exercise all the 
functions of his office as before, respected by all who 
knew him as one of the most eminent Christians of the 
age. The Romish church, too, has refuted the slanders 
of Leo by canonizing him ; and even Leo, after the death 
of Hilary, was -inconsistent enough to call him " Hilary 
of holy memory." Such was Leo the great ; such was 
the manner in which he toiled to lay the broad founda- 
tions of the Papal power. Since the Romish church has 
canonized Hilary, the Romanists are greatly perplexed to 
know what to say of the conduct of Leo. One author of 
the Life of Hilary omits his excommunication. Certainly, 

\ ■ 



318 



THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED. 



if Hilary was a saint, Leo was not ; yet both have been 
canonized. Hilary, perhaps, deserved the honor. On the 
other hand, the conduct of Leo was too profitable to 
Rome to pass without reward. It aided to lay the 
broad basis of all her powers. Therefore she has canon- 
ized hira also. So, then, both Leo, who excommunicated 
Hilary, and Hilary, who died under his anathema, were 
both eminent saints. Consistent Rome ! 

The same traits of character were displayed by Leo in 
his obstinate resistance of the twenty-eighth canon of the 
council of Chalcedon. In this, as we have already stated, 
was distinctly advanced the doctrine, that the power of 
the Bishop of Rome as well as of Constantinople was 
solely of political origin. Of the dangerous tendency of 
this doctrine Leo was too well aAvare, and resisted it with 
implacable hostility ; yet it was impossible with any 
show of historical truth to resist the canon. Leo there- 
fore supplied his lack of argument by imperious obstinacy 
and falsehood. ^ But the canon of the council remains to 
this day, an unanswerable proof of the real origin of that 
great central despotism which at last claimed by divine 
right the supremacy of the whole Christian world. That 
large ecumenical council of six hundred bishops expressly 
say, "Since the fathers, properly conceded eminent pre- 
rogatives to the episcopal throne of old Rome, because of 
the political supremacy of that city, (<^t" to ^aadeveiv ttiv noliv 
iHBivriv^ the divinely beloved fathers of the council of 
Constantinople, acting on the same principle, assigned 
equal prerogatives to the episcopal throne of New Rome ; 
thinking it suitable that a city honored by imperial au- 
thority and a senate, and enjoying equal political preroga- 
tives with Old Rome, should possess an equal preeminence 
with her in ecclesiastical authority." The only differ- 
ence admitted by the council between the two sees was 



THE ROCK PETER AND LEO THE GREAT. 319 

not one of authority, but of honorary precedence, which 
was naturally assigned to the see of the oldest of the two 
cities. This, it is plain, is a doctrine totally subversive 
of the theory of Leo, that the supremacy of the Bishop of 
Rome is derived from the divine appointment of Peter to 
be the head of the church universal. But this is not all. 
The see of Constantinople was, by the council of Chal- 
cedon, invested with the right of receiving appeals from 
all other ecclesiastical tribunals whatever. This power, 
at least in words, was granted without any limitation. 
And even if, with Bower, we think that it had in reality 
reference to* the Eastern church alone, yet it is plain be- 
yond a doubt that the council decided that the Bishop of 
Constantinople was entirely independent of the see of 
Rome. Still further : the universality of their language 
gave to the Bishop of Constantinople better ground to as- 
sume the title of universal bishop, and head of all the 
churches, and primate of the Christian world than the 
Bishop of Rome ever had. And when the Western Empire 
fell he did in fact put forth such claims, greatly to the ter- 
ror of Gregory the Great, who felt that his own throne was 
tottering to its fall. When, now, we consider the notorious 
fact that all churches were at first independent and equal, 
we shall see how immense was the chasm to be bridged over 
before the church of Rome could arrive at universal mon- 
archy by divine right over all the churches of the earth. 
We also see that intrepid forgery and lying were the only 
materials out of which the necessary bridge could be con- 
structed. The greatness, then, which is involved in found- 
ing the Romish power is of necessity based upon such ele- 
ments ; and for such greatness Leo, Nicholas L, Gregory 
YIL, and Innocent III. were eminently distinguished. 

Leo could not resist the twenty-eighth canon of the 
council of Chalcedon except by forgery ; and accordingly 



320 



THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED. 



he forged, or caused to be forged, an addition to the canons 
of the council of Nice. The legates of Leo produced in,, 
the council of Chalcedon a Latin translation of the sixth 
canon, in which the see of Rome was said always to have 
enjoyed- the primacy. Bat the whole council regarded 
the addition as a forged interpolation ; and plainly they 
were right. It is inconsistent with the context, and has 
been since omitted in the best Latin translations of the 
canons. That Leo could retain any character or influence 
after such an infamous fraud, throws a striking light on 
the morality of the age. The leprosy of religious lying 
had so corrupted the nominally Christian community that 
to be exposed in it seemed to injure no man's character, 
standing, or influence. Well has inspiration given as one 
trait of the great apostasy, " Speaking lies in hypocrisy." 
Leo, after the council of Chalcedon, did not hesitate to 
profess a sacred regard to the council of Nice, and to 
oppose the obnoxious Chalcedonian decree by an appeal to 
his own forged addition to the decrees of Nice. And yet 
such was his personal influence and power that he was 
feared alike by the Eastern and Western emperors and 
by all the civilians and ecclesiastics of the age. 

In thus professing a supreme regard to the canons of 
Nice he was guilty of a gross inconsistency ; for the fifth 
of these canons ordered all appeals to be finally decided 
by the bishops of each province. Yet he excommunicated 
Hilary for adhering to this very canon and claiming final 
authority in the case of Celidonius against the imperious 
claims of the usurping Bishop of Rome. Again we say, 
What can be conceived of more unprincipled than the 
conduct of Leo ? Yet for this very conduct Rome has ' 
ever regarded him as Leo the Great. And well may she, 
so long as she retains her arrogant claims ; for they are 
founded on nothing else. 



THE ROCK PETER AND LEO THE GREAT. 321 

In the transactions wliicli have passed under review we 
see the germs of some of the greatest developments of 
subsequent ages. In Leo I. we see the model of Nich- 
olas I., Hildebrand, and Innocent III. ; in his contest 
with Hilary, a preparation for the great controversy as to 
the Gallic liberties which nearly lost France to the Rom- 
ish church ; in his warfare with the see of Constantinople, 
the forerunner of the great Greek schism. Any one could 
easily have foreseen that Constantinople, the great rival 
of Old Rome, would sooner consent to lie under her 
anathema than tamely submit to her power. 

3. From acts so discreditable to Leo we gladly turn to 
consider his influence on the doctrines of the church ; for 
here we can find results of his intellectual powers in 
which orthodox divines, both Romish and Protestant, 
concur to this day. We refer to his discussion of the 
great doctrine of the union op the two natures of 
Christ in one Person. After what has been said of his 
unprincipled policy in extending the power of the see of 
Rome, it is perhaps little to the credit of the orthodox 
doctrine of the person of Christ that he should be found 
to be its great champion, and to have done more than any 
one person of antiquity in giving it the form in which it 
is now held. But truth does not cease to be truth even 
if advocated by an unworthy defender. 

The chief work of Leo upon this momentous theme is 
his letter to Flavianus, Bishop of Constantinople. The 
circumstances that called it forth were these : Eutyches, 
reacting from the reputed error of Nestorius, had main- 
tained that the divine and human natures after their 
union in Christ became one nature. For this he was 
condemned and deposed by a provincial council at Con- 
stantinople under Flavianus, bishop of that see. Eutyches 
appealed from the decision to an ecumenical council. 



322 



THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED. 



He addressed his appeal in particular to the Bishops of 
Rome, Alexandria, Jerusalem, and Thessalonica. It was 
in answer to this appeal and in prospect of this council that 
Leo wrote his celebrated letter to Flavianus in opposition 
to Eutyches, in which he developed the true doctrine. 
This letter was afterwards received as canonical by the 
council of Chalcedon and by all the orthodox bishops. 
It was, says Bower, in the Western churches read during 
the advent with the Gospels. The council of Rome 
anathematized all who should reject even a word of it. 
Gregory the Great made it the standard of orthodoxy on 
that point. The council of Apamea styled it " the true 
column of the orthodox faith ; " and some even caused it 
to be read to them at the point of death, in proof that 
they died in the true faith of the church. Such have been 
the fame and the power of this letter ; yet it was not at 
first received without opposition so violent as to require 
all the influence and energy of Leo to defend it. 

4. Our attention is next naturally called to the influence 
exerted by Leo on the great question of the use of force 
and the infliction of civil pains and penalties in the sup- 
pression of error. If any who were called at the origin 
of this question to investigate it, and to give form to the 
doctrine of the church on the subject, could have had a 
prophetic vision of such scenes as the massacre of St. . 
Bartholomew, celebrated by the Te Deums at Rome, or of 
the dungeons, stakes, and autos dafe of the Inquisition, — 
had they at all weighed the import of that fearful symbol, 
a harlot drunk with blood, — with what fearful solicitude 
would they have entered upon the investigation 1 But it 
was destined that early generations should sow the seeds 
of the system of religious persecution, and future ages 
reap the harvest of blood. To Leo the bad preeminence 
does not belong of having originated the system of per- 



THE ROCK PETER AND LEO THE GREAT. 323 

secution for opinion's sake. But it must be said of Mm 
that he strengthened it when it was relatively weak and 
sanctioned it by his great influence, when, if he had re- 
sisted it with all his power, he might have destroyed it 
forever. 

The idea of inflicting civil pains and penalties for opin- 
ions sprang naturally out of the alliance between church 
and state. In the early ages of Christianity it was ut- 
terly repudiated. One form of subsequent intolerance 
was so plausible that it caused little apprehension ; it 
was the suppression of paganism by law, the destruction 
of heathen temples and implements of idolatry, the con- 
fiscation of property consecrated to such uses, and fines 
on the use of frankincense and libations. These things 
were done in the reigns of Gratian and Theodosius. 
Constantino and his immediate successors were tolerant 
towards the pagans. The edict of Milan indicates the 
original views of Constantino. It was a charter of re- 
ligious liberty to all. The spirit of persecution arose 
under the influence of the hierarchy. Penal laws 
against heresy among Christians preceded the persecu- 
tions of pagans. Constantino issued two such laws, The- 
odosius fifteen, Arcadius twelve, Honorius eighteen. The 
Arians, Donatists, Pelagians, Manicheans,-Priscilli£inists, 
and Paulicians were among the more prominent perse- 
cuted heretical sects. The Arians in their turn, when in 
the ascendant, retaliated on the orthodox. But the Ro- 
man laws did not punish heresy by death. Banishment, 
fine, confiscation of goods, infamy, disqualification to buy 
or sell, exclusion from civil and military honor were the 
common penalties. According to Mosheim, however, 
some of the Donatists were put to death A. D. 316, 
the indignation of Constantino being aroused by their 
disregard of his decision against them, pronounced after 



324 



THE PAPAL COJfSPIRACY EXPOSED. 



a personal investigation — their case having been previ- 
ously investigated by two councils summoned by his au- 
thority, and they having been twice before condemned. 
Of this infliction, however, other historians say nothing ; 
and Gieseler expressly says that the first instance of the 
judicial execution of a heretic was in the case of Priscil- 
lian, A. D. 385, who was, with others of his followers, 
tried and executed by the usurper Maximus, at the insti- 
gation of the Bishops Idacius and Ithacius. Hagenbach 
also says that the Priscillianists were the first heretics 
persecuted by the sword. 

It is worthy of note that this proceeding at that time 
met with general reprobation. In particular, Martin of 
Tours and Ambrose of Milan loudly condemned it ; and 
the instigators of the deed were finally expelled from 
their bishoprics. 

Such was the state of the Christian world on the sub- 
ject of persecution when Leo was called to meet the ques- 
tion, by the flight of large numbers of the Manichees to 
Rome from Carthage and the provinces which the Van- 
dals under Genseric had overrun. A letter from Turri- 
bius. Bishop of Astorga, called his attention to the revi- 
val and spread of the heresy of Priscillian in Spain. 
Leo had now a glorious opportunity to set forth the true 
principles of religious liberty and to rectify the errors 
of preceding years. There was, it is plain, deep feeling 
in the church against punishing heretics by death, and 
the guilt and folly of all civil pains and penalties for er- 
roneous opinions could have been clearly shown. The 
authority of the earlier fathers could have been easily 
adduced against them. Tertullian had said, " Eeligion 
does not compel religion;" Origen, " Christians should 
not use the sword ; " Lactantius, " Coercion and injury 
are unnecessary ; for religion cannot be forced. Barbar- 



THE ROCK PETER AND LEO THE GREAT. 325 

ity and piety greatly differ from eacli otlier : nor can 
truth be conjoined with violence, or justice with cruelty. 
Religion is to be defended, not by killing, but by dying ; 
not by inhumanity, but by patience." Cyprian had as- 
cribed to Christ alone the right to punish for opinions. 
Had Leo fallen back upon such authorities, and employed 
his great abilities in defence of religious liberty, how glo- 
rious had been his reward ! He could have turned back 
the Christian world to the true and lofty ground on 
which they once stood and averted the infamy of future 
ages. But how could a prelate, whose great object was 
to exalt the authority of his own see above that of all 
others, appreciate the dignity and glory of such an enter- 
prise? Power, centralization, rule were his great ideas ; 
to subjugate the human mind to ecclesiastical authority, 
not to give it liberty, was his great aim. His conduct 
may be inferred from these principles. It may be also 
inferred from the fact that in later times Maimbourg ap- 
peals to the writings of Leo to prove that heresy is a 
capital crime and may be justly punished with death. 
Leo, then, is one of the main fountain heads from which 
has issued that river of blood which in after ages deluged 
the world. How little could he comprehend the influence 
on after ages of a few words written by him in defence of 
the system of religious persecution ! 

It is true that in the case of the Manichees he did not 
resort to capital punishment ; nay, he says that it was 
repugnant to the spirit of the church, and to that lenity 
in which she places her chief glory, abhorring to shed the 
blood even of the most detestable heretics. But the 
church of Rome has in all ages made the same profession. 
She has never shed the blood of heretics — not she ! The 
true test is this : Has she ever justified the civil magistrate 
in shedding it? Has she ever enjoined it upon him so to 
28 



326 



THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED. 



do ? So, in this case, the true test to be applied to Leo 
is this : How did he regard the execution of Priscillian 
and others by Maximus ? Did he justify and defend it? 
Or did he, like Martin of Tours, reprobate and abhor it? 
To answer these questions, we only need to read his letter 
to Turribius, who had implored his assistance against the 
Priscillianists. In this he condemns their doctrines as im- 
pious and detestable ; declares that all who tolerate here- 
sies are no less guilty than those who embrace them ; and 
justifies the execution of Priscillian and some of his dis- 
ciples by Maximus. This is the letter to which Maim- 
bourg appeals to prove that heresy may justly be punished 
by death. 

But, even where Leo did not resort to the penalty of 
death, he used every other form of persecution with the 
utmost severity. He stirred up Yalentinian to pass a 
law confirming all the persecuting edicts of his predeces- 
sors against the Manichees. Banishment, confiscation, 
exclusion from civil and military employments and hon- 
ors, incapacity to give or receive by will, to sue at law or 
make a contract, and compelling the whole community to 
act as irresponsible informers against them, — ■ these were 
the penalties attached to these laws ; and these Leo did not 
deem inconsistent with that lenity of the church in which 
she places her chief glory. 

Some have, indeed, attempted to defend the execution of 
Priscillian on the ground of the immoralities of which he 
was guilty and to which his system tended ; but, when 
we call to mind that the Romish party defend the mur- 
der of the Albigenses and Waldenses on the same ground, 
we ought to be suspicious of such a defence. The opin- 
ions of Priscillian were, indeed, grossly erroneous as they 
are now set forth. Neander says of them, that, " so far as 
we can gain any knowledge of them from the meagre 



THE ROCK PETER AND LEO THE GREAT. 327 

accounts of their adversaries, Dualism and tlie emanation 
theory were combined together in them — elements relat- 
ed to Gnosticism and Manicheism. Their moral system, 
as their doctrine required, was rigidly ascetic. It enjoined 
austerities of all sorts, and in particular celibacy. The 
charges laid against them of dissolute conduct are, to say 
the least, not sufficiently well authenticated." Maximus, 
indeed, alleged that Priscillian confessed his crimes ; but 
Neander distrusts the confession if made, as probably in- 
voluntary and extorted by the rack. It should also be 
borne in mind that, after heretics have been executed, 
there is a uniform tendency in their persecutors to defend 
themselves by bearing false witness against their victims. 
Indeed it is always easy to change heretical contumacy 
into the crime of rebellion against the civil powers. 

It is, however, but fair to Leo to say that his is not the 
only great name of that age to whom the advocates of 
persecution may appeal for support. On a name far greater 
than his own the same opprobrium rests — even that of Au- 
gustine, Bishop of Hippo. He was originally tolerant in 
his views ; but becoming, as it would seem, impatient in con- 
sequence of the perversity of the Manichees and Donatists, 
he was led to advocate and defend the use of force. " It 
was by Augustine," says Neander, " that the theory was 
proposed and founded which contained the germs of that 
whole system of spiritual despotism, of intolerance, and 
persecution which ended in the tribunals of the Inqui- 
sition." By this it cannot be meant that the practice of 
persecution had not begun before Augustine, but that he 
first devised those sophistical arguments which in after 
ages were used in its defence. He did not defend it on 
the ground that force in itself tends to produce direct con- 
viction of truth, but that by suffering the mind may be so 
affected that it shall at last seek to know the truth. This 



328 



THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED.. 



he illustrated by a reference to the discipline of the prov- 
idence of God and of a father in his family. He seemed 
not to notice that such discipline is not for error, but for 
sin, and that it involves no sense of violated rights ; whereas 
all efforts to convince by force do ' involve a sense of in- 
justice and tend to reaction. But wretched as this sophis- 
try is, falling in as it did with the tendencies of the age, 
it passed for argument. But sophistry much less subtle 
was resorted to by Leo in defence of the system of perse- 
cution to which he stood committed. In his letter to Tur- 
ribius he says, with reference to the execution of Priscillian, 
" Such a use of the sword has been advantageous to the 
exercise of the lenity of the church, who, although content 
to give ecclesiastical decisions and averse to shed blood, 
is nevertheless aided by the severe laws of Christian 
princes; since those who fear bodily punishment will be 
more readily disposed to seek spiritual salvation." One 
might almost suppose that these were the words of some 
gentle inquisitor of modern days whose tender heart re- 
volts from shedding blood, but is intent on saving the souls 
of his victims by the terrors of dungeons, the rack, the 
scaffold, and the fires of an auto dafe. 

5. We now come to consider the fifth and last class of 
the acts of Leo — namely, those relating to the sacraments 
and discipline of the church. 

These topics, it must be conceded, much occupied his 
thoughts, and occur very frequently in his letters. And 
yet he accomplished little in these particulars that left a 
bold and definite impress on future ages. Indeed some 
of his decisions have since been reversed and branded as 
heretical by the church of Rome. This is particularly 
true of his decision on the effects of the baptism of here- 
tics. The present doctrine of the Romish church 'is, that 
such baptism is not devoid of saving power, but remits sin, 



THE ROCK PETER AND LEO THE GREAT. 



329 



confers grace, and sanctifies as really as the baptism of the 
church. But Leo decided that those baptized b}^ heretics 
received nothing but the external form of baptism, and 
still need an imposition of hands, and an invocation of 
the Holy Ghost by the church, in order to receive the in- 
ward power and sanctification of baptism. 

The celibacy of the clergy, one great pillar of the Papal 
edifice, Leo found already enjoined by a decree of his 
predecessor, Siricius, A. D. 385. He merely extended the 
prohibition to subdeacons, who had before been exempt 
from the law. Here, too, Leo failed to exert his. power 
to check the progress of the Gnostic and ascetic apostasy. 
This pernicious interdiction of marriage to the clergy 
was totally unknown in the first three centuries. In the 
fourth, Jerome tells us that the married clergy were pre- 
ferred to the unmarried by the majority of the community. 
In the celebrated council of Nice, A. D. 325, it was pro- 
posed to enjoin continence on the clergy who were already 
married ; but Paphnutius, one of the most eminent prelates 
of the time, himself unmarried, vindicated the purity of 
the marriage state, and protested against imposing on the 
clergy burdens that they could not bear. The council, 
influenced by him, refused to enact the canon proposed. 
Still Paphnutius was in favor of celibacy in the clergy 
not already married. Sixty years after this, the decree 
of Siricius was promulgated, enjoining celibacy on the 
clergy, and soon after it was enjoined by councils in Af- 
rica, Gaul, Spain, and Germany. This resulted so directly 
from the spirit of the great Gnostic apostasy then coming 
to its crisis that Leo might have utterly failed if he had 
opposed it. But it would have been glorious even to fail 
in such an attempt. But nothing of the kind could be 
rationally expected from him ; nothing of the kind was 
attempted by him. He sanctioned a practice which has 
28* 



380 



THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED. 



in all ages made the Romish church, literally as well as 
spiritually, " the mother of harlots and of abominations 
of the earth." The evils of the system did indeed at 
length lead to a reaction towards the marriage of the cler- 
gy, as we have stated. But Gregory YII. resisted this, 
and confirmed the present pernicious system. 



CHAPTER YI. 



PERIOD OF GREGORY YII., THE PATRON SAINT OF THE 
ROMISH BISHOPS OF THE UNITED STATES. 

We have called the period from the eleventh to the 
sixteenth century the Papal period. It is eminently 
such. It discloses the theory and practice of Popery 
in their perfection. 

It may with no less propriety be called the period of 
Gregory YII., for he was the great master builder who 
combined the forgeries and frauds of all preceding ages, 
augmented by some of his own, into the model of that 
gigantic ecclesiastical despotism that during four centu- 
ries reigned sole monarch of Christendom. 

It becomes us, as Americans, to feel a peculiar interest 
in this period. The bishops of the Romish church who 
reside in these United States have seen fit to introduce 
into this free land the festival of that pontiff by whom 
this system of centralized despotism was founded and by 
whose principles it was established. He is therefore, in 
a peculiar sense, their patron saint. 

It is well that they have taken this ground. They are 
parts of the great central corporation. Each of them is 
bound to the pope by a feudal oath of which Gregory was 
the author. These men know its import and to what 
principles it commits them. They also know that his 
canonization implies a full sanction of these principles. 

(331) 



332 THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED. 



Is it not well, then, for Americans to understand what 
they are ? 

We have seen what materials Leo I. and Nicholas I., 
with their fellow-laborers in the same cause, had pre- 
pared. At the acces&ion of Gregory YII. the time to use 
them had fully come. 

Two things were to be effected. The bishops were to 
be detached from all earthly sovereigns, and as subjugated 
vassals to be bound to the pope as their supreme lord by 
feudal oaths. The bishops also, and especially the pope, 
their head, were to be emancipated from subjection to the 
Emperor of Germany and other civil rulers, and made an 
independent spiritual power. Nor was this all. The 
kings of Europe were to be subjected to him as his sub- 
jects and vassals. To carry out the last part of this great 
scheme Gregory needed forgeries of his own — for which, 
as we shall see, he was never at a loss. Let us now con- 
sider the execution of his plan. 



GREGORY ASSAILS HENRY IV. 

The imperial power had passed from the Frankish to 
the German emperors. The popes had risen from the 
degradation into which they fell for a time after the Pa- 
pacy of Nicholas I. The sceptre of the German empire 
was not swayed by an emperor of undisputed and resist- 
less authority like Otho the Great. On the other hand, 
Henry lY., a youth, was enfeebled by a rebellion among 
his Saxon subjects. There was also, to a considerable 
extent, a disposition among the barons of the empire to 
take sides with the pope against Henry, at least until they 
had reduced the power and prerogatives of the emperor. 
There is no reason to doubt that there were just causes of 



PERIOD OF GREGORY VIT. 



333 



complaint against Henry ; but it was not a regard to 
them, but a purpose to emancipate the Romish church 
from the imperial power and to establish a theocracy 
over kings, that impelled Gregory in his usurping career. 

It was a right of the emperor to invest the Romish 
bishops in the empire with the insignia of spiritual and 
temporal authority, receiving from them at the same time 
an acknowledgment of his sovereignty and promises of 
allegiance. Gregory determined to wrest the whole of 
this authority from the emperor and to vest it in himself. 
He attacked him almost immediately after he had ascended 
the imperial throne and when weakened by the revolt of 
the Saxons. Alleging that the power of the emperors had 
been abused by the sale of bishoprics and otherwise, he 
commanded Henry to relinquish his prerogatives to the 
pope. Henry of course refused to comply with the inso- 
lent demand. Hereupon the pope summoned Henry to 
appear before him to answer to charges to be preferred 
against him. Henry, enraged at such usurping insolence, 
summoned a council at Worms and deposed Gregory and 
appointed a successor. Gregory then, in a council at 
Rome, deposed the emperor, and by authority received as 
he alleged from Peter, released his subjects from their al- 
legiance and forbade them to obey him. Thus was opened 
a new era in the history of the Papacy and of the world. 

In this act of deposition no reference at all was made 
to any complaints of the subjects of Henry against him. 
The only crime for which he was deposed was rebellion 
against St. Peter in the person of Gregory.' 

This was the first act in a campaign of centuries. It 
inaugurated a new theocracy on earth. It disclosed a 
plan to make all kings but the humble vassals of the holy 
see of Rome. 

Had there been no civil war and no hostility to Henry 



334 



THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED. 



the deposition would have been powerless. As it was, it 
raised against him a powerful party, who determined to 
regard him as deposed and to appoint a successor unless 
Henry would submit to the pope and obtain absolution. 
And now the imperial majesty was degraded indeed. 
Urged by the danger of losing his crown, in midwinter, 
and at the expense of much toil and suffering, Henry 
crossed the Alps into Italy, and at the fortress of Canossa 
humbled himself before the pope and sought absolution. | 
Gregory determined to use his power to degrade him to 
the uttermost. Three days he refused to see him, and 
kept him standing in the cold air imprisoned between the 
outer and inner walls of the castle, barefooted and in the 
garb of a penitent. Nor would he at last give the uncon- 
ditional absolution that Henry demanded. He restored 
him to communion, but forbade him to reign until he had 
been tried before himself in a German council that was at 
hand. 

A large party of the Italian subjects of Henry, indig- 
nant at the insolence and usurpation of the pope, rallied 
around him ; and, thus encouraged, he refused to go to the 
council, and again defied the pope. Hereupon a succes- 
sor, Rodolph, Duke of Swabia, was appointed in Germany, 
to whom Gregory gave the crown, and from whom he re- 
ceived a feudal oath, as his vassal. 

Henry, however, defeated and slew Rodolph, and at 
last banished Gregory from Rome, established another 
pope as his successor, and from him received the im- 
perial crown.' 

GREGORY'S PRINCIPLES TRIUMPH. 

Gregory died in exile at Salermo ; but his successors 
inherited his spirit and principles and carried on the war 



PERIOD OF GREGORY VII. 



335 



which he had begun, and at the end of a century had 
gained the victory. In the days of Innocent III., to use 
the words of Hallam, " The maxims of Gregory YII. had 
been matured by more than a hundred years, and the right 
of trampling upon the necks of kings had been received, 
at least among churchmen, as an inherent attribute of the 
Papacy. ^As the sun and the moon are placed in the 
firmament,^ (such is the language of Innocent,) ' the greater 
as the light of the day and the lesser of the night : thus 
are there two powers in the church — the pontifical, which, 
as having the charge of souls, is the greater ; and the royal, 
which is the less, and to which the bodies of men only are 
intrusted.' Intoxicated with these conceptions, (if we may 
apply such a word to successful ambition,) he thought no 
quarrel of princes beyond the sphere of his jurisdiction." 
In another place he says, " The noonday of Papal dominion 
extends from the pontificate of Innocent III. inclusively 
-to that of Boniface YIII. ; or, in other words, through the 
thirteenth century. Rome inspired during all this age 
the terrors of her ancient name. She was once more the 
mistress of the world, and kings were her vassals." 



THE CANON LAW. 



Then was fully developed the- canon law, based on the 
forged decretals, but rising even above them in extrava- 
gance of claims. The decretals of Gregory and of other 
pontiffs after him, especially of Innocent III., form a large 
portion of its substance. To exalt the Papacy above all 
earthly power is its great aim. It expressly declares that 
" the pope does not fill the place of a mere man, but of 
the true God on earth." It declares his divine right to de- 
pose monarchs and to absolve subjects from their oaths of 



336 THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED. 



allegiance. In short, it ascribes to him all the rights and 
prerogatives of God, and some which he does not claim. 
God never claimed superiority to the laws of right or the 
power to dispense with them. It was reserved for the 
Pope of Rome to make this claim. Thus has he exalted 
himself above all that is called God or worshipped ; thus 
has he, as God, sat in the temple of God, showing himself 
that he is God. 

THE BISHOP'S OATH. 

Of the Papal supremacy over kings enough has been 
said. The subjugation and centralization of the bishops 
were no less complete. By the law of celibacy they were 
detached from all local interests and ties ; and, to complete 
the work, the regulation, that no bishop should exercise his 
functions until confirmed by the pope, resulted in binding 
them all to him by a feudal oath as his conquered vassals. 
Of this regulation Hallam says, " It was one of vast impor- 
tance, through which, beyond, perhaps, any other means, 
Rome has sustained, and still sustains, her temporal influ- 
ence as well as her ecclesiastical supremacy." Such is the 
origin and such the influence of the odious, humiliating, 
and disgraceful bishop's oath. No riglitminded man can 
regard without pity the degeneracy of the miserable men 
who take it. 

When we consider how gross the forgeries on which the 
Papal supremacy of jurisdiction is based, how directly and 
expressly it is in violation of the laws of Christ, and at 
war with the just liberty, equality, and independence en- 
joyed by the pastors of churches in the early ages, it will 
at once become apparent how utterly degraded is the 
position of all Romish bishops and how infamous the oath 
by which they are bound. That oath is as follows : — 



PERIOD OF GREGORY VII. 337 

" I, N., elect of the Church of N., from henceforward 
will be faithful and obedient to St. Peter the apostle, and 
to the holy Roman church, and to our lord the Lord N., 
Pope N., and to his successors canonically coming in. I 
will neither advise, consent, or do any thing that may 
lose life or member, or that their persons may be seized 
or hands any wise laid upon them, or any injuries offered to 
them under any pretence whatsoever. The counsel which 
they shall intrust me withal, by themselves, their messen- 
gers, or letters, I will not knowingly reveal to any to their 
prejudice. I will help them to defend and keep the Roman 
Papacy and the royalties of St. Peter, saving my order, 
against all men. The legate of the apostolic see, going 
and coming, I will honorably treat and help in his necessi- 
ties. The rights, honors, privileges, and authority of the 
holy Roman church, of our lord the pope, and his foresaid 
successors, I will endeavor to preserve, defend, increase, 
and advance. I will not be in any counsel, action, or 
treaty in which shall be plotted against our said lord and 
the said Roman church any thing to the hurt or prejudice 
of their persons, right, honor, state, or power ; and, if I 
shall know any such thing to be treated or agitated by any 
whatsoever, I will hinder it to my power, and as soon as 
I can will signify it to our said lord, or to some other by 
whom it may come to his knowledge. The rules of the 
holy fathers, the apostolic decrees, ordinances, or disposals, 
reservations, provisions, and mandates I will observe with 
all my might and cause to be observed by others. Here- 
tics, schismatics, and rebels to our said lord or his fore- 
said successors I will to my utmost power persecute and 
wage war with. I will come to a council when I am 
called unless I be hindered by a canonical impediment. 
I will by myself, in person, visit the threshold of the 
apostles every three years, and give an account to our 
lord and his foresaid successors of all my pastoral office, 
and of all things any wise belonging to the state of my 
church, to the discipline of my clergy and people, and 
lastly to the salvation of souls committed -to my trust, 
and will in like manner humbly receive and diligently 
execute the apostolic commands. And, if I be detained by 
a lawful impediment, I will perform all the things afore- 
29 



338 



THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED. 



said by a certain messenger hereto specially empowered, 
a member of my chapter, or some other in ecclesiastical 
dignity or else having a parsonage ; or, in default of these, 
by a priest of the diocese ; or, in default of one of the 
clergy (of the diocese,) by some other secular or regular 
priest of approved integrity and religion, fully instructed 
in all things above mentioned. And such impediment I 
will make out by lawful proofs to be transmitted by the 
foresaid messenger to the cardinal proponent of the holy 
Roman church in the congregation of the Sacred Council. 
The possessions belonging to my table I will neither sell, 
nor give away, nor mortgage, nor grant anew in fee, nor 
any wise alienate, — no, not even with the consent of the 
chapter of my church, — without consulting the Roman 
pontiff. And, if I shall make any alienation, I will there- 
by incur the penalties contained in a certain constitution put 
forth about this matter. So help me God and those holy 
Gospels of God." 

The real nature and origin of this oath cannot be hid- 
den for a moment. It regards the pope as a feudal mon- 
arch, and makes every bishop his sworn vassal — obliged 
to come at his call, keep his secrets, defend his interests, 
assail, and if possible destroy, his enemies the heretics, 
and in all things be an obedient slave to his will. 

Let the origin of this oath, then, never be forgotten. Let 
the principles and practice of the age of Gregory YIL, In- 
nocent III., and Boniface VIII. be recalled and reviewed as 
set forth in the first part of this work. Let the import of 
" the royalties of St. Peter," and " the rights, honors, priv- 
ileges, and authority of the holy Roman church of our 
lord the pope and his foresaid successors " be interpreted 
in the light of the principles and practice of the age in 
which the oath originated. All these the Romish bishops 
who reside ifi America are sworn to "preserve, defend, in- 
crease, and advance.-" Consider what is implied in " the 
APOSTOLIC DECREES, ordinances, or disposals, reservations, 



f 

PERIOD OF GREGORY YII, 



339 



prOTisioiis, or mandates." Does not this include the canon 
law, in which the temporal supremacy of the pope is car- 
ried to the highest point? Does it not include the depos- 
ing power, the absolution from oaths, perfidy to heretics, 
the persecution of heretics, and other similar doctrines of 
the canon law ? But why ask this question as to the per- 
secution of heretics ? Does not the oath expressly demand 
the promise " to persecute and wage war with heretics, 
schismatics, and rebels to our said lord the pope to their 
utmost power " ? It is in vain to try to evade the import 
of this part of the oath, as does Bishop Kenrick, by say- 
ing that it denotes merely moral warfare by the truth. 
This is an evasion worthy only of a Jesuit. Was the 
duty of t)ishops towards heretics so understood in the age 
of Gregory, when the oath first originated ? Is it so un- 
derstood in the canon law which the bishop has sworn to 
observe ? 

Let it be noticed that this oath binds by its own force to 
obey the pope's decrees independently of a general council. 
It is an oath that in reality represents the views of the 
Italian party ; that is, of the highest advocates of the 
Papal power. It is an oath framed by the head of the 
Roman court. Call to mind, now, the expressions of hatred, 
abhorrence, and utter detestation with which the popes even 
at this very time speak of the principles of religious liberty 
on which this nation is founded, and their steadfast purpose 
to oppose to their progress an iron will, and the conclusion 
is plain : either the bishops who take the oath are perjured, 
or else they do and will, to their utmost energy, cooperate 
with the pope to subvert our civil and religious liberty, 
and in place of them to establish the intolerant, persecut- 
ing, and bloody despotism of the pope. But perjury to 
himself the pope never allows. In his own behalf he 
Banctions and enjoins it ; but against himself it is an unpar- 
donable sin. 



340 



THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED. 



Such, then, are the institutions of the canonized Gregory, 
whom our American bishops honor as a saint. We com- 
mend them to the careful consideration of American free- 
men. 

It was by the same Gregory also, although before his 
Papacy, that the present mode of electing the popes by 
cardinals was introduced. This was another important 
step in the work of securing the independency of the 
Papacy of all secular power, and it has contributed greatly 
to the strength and perpetuity of the whole Papal system. 



GREGORY'S IMPOSTURES. 

We have said that Gregory resorted to forgery and 
fraud in carrying out his purpose of making the monarchs 
of Europe his vassals. Of this we find a striking case in 
a pretended quotation of his from what he asserts to be a 
statute of the Emperor Charlemagne, declaring that France, 
' as a feudatory of the holy see, was bound to pay an annual 
tribute called Peter's pence. He declared that this tribute 
was, by order of Charlemagne, collected yearly at Puy, in 
Velai, at Aix-la-Chapelle, and at St. Giles. This statute 
was lodged, as he says, in the archives of St. Peter's Church. 
This absurd pretence was in substance a second and 
revised edition of the old forgery of the donation of Con- 
stantine. Yet he insisted upon the tribute upon this 
ground. 

So he set up a claim that Spain oi '^ginally belonged to 
Peter, and on this ground authorized Count Euvulus to 
donquer those parts of it occupied by the Moors in his 
name, and to hold them as a feudatory and tributary of 
St. Peter. He demanded tribute also of all the Christian 
kings of Spain on the same ground. 



PERIOD OP GREGORY VII. 



341 



He claimed Hungary from King Solomon as a gift to 
Peter from Stephen, the first Christian king. Solomon re- 
sisted the demand on the ground of allegiance to the em- 
peror, but was driven from the throne by his cousin Geisa ; 
and on him Gregory conferred the kingdom on condition 
that he would be his vassal, and not that of the emperor. 
In like manner he laid claim to Corsica, Sardinia, Dalma- 
tia, Russia, Denmark, Poland, Saxony, and England, as fiefs 
of the apostle Peter. In Italy the Normans, masters 
of Apulia, Calabria, and Sicily, the Dukes of Benevento, 
Capua, and Aversa, and other princes, swore allegiance 
to Gregory, lest if they did not he should stir up other 
monarchs to invade them. A more barefaced system of 
imposition, fraud, and villany was never practised ; and 
yet it is only a consistent extension of the principles of 
the forged decretals. All of these proceedings were car- 
ried on by Gregory in a style of eminent Papal sanctity 
and authority. The details may be found in his letters and 
in Bower's Lives of the Popes. On these proceedings 
Hallam remarks, " It was convenient to treat this apostle 
as SL great feudal suzerain; and the legal principles of that 
age were dexterously applied to rivet more forcibly the 
fetters of superstition." 

Such is the morality of St. Gregory YII., the patron 
saint of the Bishops of Pome who sojourn in these United 
States. But in all this he has but followed sainted popes 
of other ages. All the great architects of the Romish 
Babylon have been men of a kindred character. Bold, 
energetic, aspiring, intelligent, in ages of darkness they 
have, on principle and without scruple, resorted to the 
use of forgery and fraud to establish their usurped author- 
ity over a subjugated world. 



CHAPTER YII. 



CHARACTERISTICS OF THE DISPENSATION OF GREGORY VIL 

We have traced the formation of the Romish corpora- 
tion to the time^of its maturity and full development. 

Let us now consider some of the characteristics of the 
age when it developed itself without impediment. 

First of all it follows from the necessity of the case 
that it must have been eminently a period of credulity. 
It was, of necessity, entirely devoid of the critical and 
historic spirit. To a great extent all men lived in an 
unnatural, mythical, dreamy world ; this was the inevita- 
ble result of that training to which the barbarous nations 
had been long subjected by means of that widespread sys- 
tem of pious fraud which has been described and the false 
system in which it resulted.* The whole energy of the ec- 
clesiastics of Western Europe was put forth to develop 
and cultivate habits of credulity as the basis of hierarchal 
power. The whole European mind was thus immersed 
into a lake of credulity, until it was thereby steeped and 
impregnated in all its faculties, and, even in its very es- 
sence, with credulity. Such were the ages sometimes mis- 
called the ages of faith. 

The consequence of this was, that the system introduced 
and established operated with immense, with inconceivable, 
power. Bungling as were the forged decretals, the dona- 
tion of Constantine, and other similar forgeries, yet, being 

(342) 



DISPENSATION OF GREGORY YII. 



343 



fully believed, they exercised an equal power with the 
word of God. 

Nor is the existence of the scholastic divinity inconsist- 
ent with this statement. That was, no doubt, a powerful 
development of systematizing and of logic ; but the prem- 
ises were furnished by the hierarchy, and were to be 
received without dispute, on peril of anathemas and ex- 
communications. History and intelligent criticism had 
no place in their studies. Hence they did not detect or 
expose the forged decretals nor any of the frauds of other 
ages. They ground in the great mill of the Papacy like 
blinded Samson in the mill of the Philistines. Nay, more : 
they forged new shackles for humanity by developing and 
defending the peculiar doctrines of the Papacy, such as 
transubstantiation, purgatory, and the seven sacraments. 

It is a natural result from the preceding statements 
that this was an age of profound superstition. The world 
was darkened by false views of God and the unreal terrors 
of the Papacy. The excess of terror produced in the 
boldest minds by excommunication is to us inconceivable, 
and an interdict was the climax of horrors. An interdict 
was the suspension of all the ordinary offices of religion 
throughout a whole province, or kingdom, commonly for 
the sin of some ruler. It was designed by the pope to 
subdue the refractory spirit of such ruler by the terrors 
of his subjects. In the ages of the deepest credulity it 
was as if the sun was turned into darkness and the moon 
into blood — as if the stars were falling from heaven and 
all the powers of heaven were shaken. By it God was 
eclipsed, heaven shut up, and hell opened. " The churches," 
says Hallam, were closed, the bells silent, the dead un- 
buried, no rite but those of baptism and extreme unction 
performed. The penalty fell upon those who had neither 
partaken nor could have prevented the offence ; and the 



344 



THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED, 



offence was often but a private dispute, in which the pride 
of a pope or bishop had been wounded. They were issued 
not unfrequently against kingdoms ; biit in particular 
districts they continually occurred." With regard to the 
policy of Eome in issuing such interdicts Hallam justly 
remarks, " No stretch of her tyranny was, perhaps, so out- 
rageous as this." 

The terrors of excommunication, though commonly not 
so widespread, were equally vivid and overpowering. 
The church not only excluded from communion, but with 
all her power poured odium upon her victims. In the 
words of Hallam, " They were to be shunned like men in- 
fected with leprosy by their servants, their friends, and 
their families. Two attendants only (if we may trust a 
current history) remained with Robert, King of France, 
who, on account of an irregular marriage, was put to this 
ban by Gregory Y. ; and these threw all the meats that 
had passed his table into the fire. Indeed the mere inter- 
course with a proscribed person incurred what was called 
the lesser excommunication, or privation of the sacraments, 
and required penitence and absolution. In some places a 
bier was set before the door of an excommunicated indi- 
vidual and stones thrown at his windows — a singular 
method of compelling his submission ! Every where the 
excommunicated were debarred of a regular sepulture, 
which, though obviously a matter of police, has, through 
the superstition of consecrating burial grounds, been 
treated as belonging to ecclesiastical control." 

In this age also there was an entire subversion of all 
moral principle in the constant effort of the pope and his 
corporation to exaggerate the guilt of heresy, — that is, of 
resistance to their decisions and their authority, — and to 
extirpate it by fire and sword. If any, repelled by the 
gross immorality of the clergy, had recourse to the Bible 



DISPENSATION OF GREGORY VII. 



845 



for a purer religion, it mattered not if they manifested 
every element of the Christian character. It was in vain 
that they were chaste, temperate, industrious, benevolent, 
compassionate, intelligent, and in all respects pure in 
heart and life : the one sin of heresy — that is, resistance to 
the pope — outweighed it all. On the other hand, fraud, 
perjury, lust, uncleanness, murder, violence, plunder were 
all transmuted into virtues by the popes, and rewarded 
with the pardon of sin and the promise of heaven if they 
were but employed for the church in the extermination of 
heretics. The whole history of the crusades against the 
Albigenses, of which Innocent III. was the life and soul, 
is full of illustrations of the truth of these remarks. Nor 
was it enough to torture and murder the pure and the in- 
nocent. Slander was added ; and those crimes of impurity 
which rendered the Romish clergy justly infamous were 
falsely imputed to their pure and innocent victims. 

So utterly had the church thus perverted the moral sense 
of the masses that they entered with rapturous joy on the 
work of massacre if heretics were to be the objects of 
assault. In these works of blood the popes were ever 
the mainspring, and ecclesiastics their mo'st infuriated in- 
struments. Moreover the whole bloody work was done 
under the forms of religion, and massacres the most atro- 
cious were celebrated by Te Deums. 

During the Papacy of Innocent III. the Romish system 
was at its highest point of development. He is the most 
perfect imbodiment of the system. And yet it was he 
who first fully and on a great scale incorporated into the 
fundamental law and practice of the church the principles 
of fraud, perjury, robbery, and murder in the extirpation 
of heretics. 

His crusades against the Albigenses cannot be thought 
of to this day without a thrill of horror. Take but one 



346 



THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED. 



act out of that great drama of horrors. The army of^ 
brutal and fanatical crusaders whom Innocent had stirred 
up by indulgences and promises of heaven to the work of 
blood poured like a torrent into the province of Langue- 
doc, on the Gulf of Lyons. Here and in the adjacent 
province of Provence were the chief abodes of the Albi- 
genses. The crusaders assailed Beziers, a city containing 
about fifteen thousand inhabitants ; but as from the castles 
and villages around men, women, and children had fled to 
it, from forty to sixty thousand people were concentrated 
there. As soon as the crusaders took the place their vic- 
tims crowded to the churches ; and, by way of supplication 
for mercy, the bells were tolled. In vain — the churches 
were deluged with blood. In one alone seven thousand 
corpses were counted. All were slaughtered to the last 
living creature, the houses were plundered, and the city 
burned. Not a building remained — ^not a human being 
was left alive. All this and other similar scenes of hor- 
ror Innocent stirred up the crusaders, by bulls, and briefs, 
and promises of reward, to undertake and execute ; and he 
sanctioned and applauded them when done. The com- 
munity of the Albigenses was the most civilized, intelli- 
gent, moral, religious, and refined in Europe. For this 
reason they saw the abominations of the Papacy and re- 
volted, adopting the true doctrines of the word of God. 
For this very reason, too. Innocent determined on their 
utter extermination ; and, as the slow processes of trial 
were too tardy in their operation, he determined to effect 
a summary extermination without trial; and, as in the 
case of the Gunpowder Plot, the death of a few Papists 
was not to be thought of when compared with ecclesias- 
tical utility. By such measures this first reformation was 
totally extinguished. So prodigious was the slaughter, 
so freezing the terror, that the church, says Shoberl, 



DISPENSATION OF GREGORY VII. 



347 



seemed completely to liave gained her end. The worship 
of the reformed Albigenses ceased, their teachers were 
slain, and only a few scattered exiles remained. But 
even this did not satisfy Innocent. These, too, must be 
tracked and hunted out. For this purpose he established 
a body of inquisitors ; and, after some modifications, this 
arrangement resulted in the infamous and permanent tri- 
bunal of the Inquisition. 

The principles of perjury, treachery, robbery, and mur- 
der thus inaugurated by Innocent and sanctioned by the 
church, both by theory and example, descended as a lega- 
cy to the popes of other ages. They stimulated the hie- 
rarchy to the persecution of the Lollards, the disciples of 
Wickliffe in England, for about a century and a half ; 
to the persecution and death of Jerom of Prague, John 
Huss, and their followers in Bohemia ; to the long-contin- 
ued and intensely cruel persecutions of the Waldenses in 
northern Italy ; and finally to the extended leagues framed 
to slaughter and exterminate the Protestants of Europe 
after the reformation of Luther. Well does inspiration 
depict this abandoned and profligate body as a harlot 
drunk with the blood of the saints. Nor need we won- 
der that the highest indignation of God is manifested to- 
wards this unparalleled series of crimes. In view of the 
blood of saints found in her, the holy inhabitants of heav- 
en are called on to praise God for his avenging judg- 
ments on her ; and in view of such ineffable crimes they 
say hallelujah, whilst her smoke goes up forever and ever. 



PAPAL HATRED OF THE BIBLE. 



Another striking characteristic of this age is found in 
the fact that the hostility of the Romish corporation to 



348 



THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED. 



the Bible was first fully developed and that prohibitions 
were issued against its use in the vernacular tongues of 
Europe. 

The feelings of hostility to the popular reading of the 
Bible manifested by the Komish church at this day are 
well known. Can any thing be more striking than the 
fact that the great Romish saint, Gregory VII., took the 
lead in the enterprise of depriving the people of the Bi- 
ble ? In January, 1080, Vratislaus, Duke of Bohemia, 
desiring leave to have divine service performed in the com- 
mon tongue of the people, — that is, the Sclavonian, — 
Gregory gave him the following reply : " As you desire us 
to allow divine service to be performed among you in the 
Sclavonian tongue, know that I can by no means grant 
you your request, it being manifest to all who will but re- 
flect that it has pleased the Almighty that the Scripture 
should be withheld from some, and not understood by all, 
lest it should fall into contempt or lead the unlearned into 
error. And it must not be alleged that all were allowed 
in the primitive times to read the Scriptures, it being well 
known that in those early times the church connived at 
many things which the holy fathers disapproved and cor- 
rected when the Christian religion was firmly established. 
We therefore cannot grant, but absolutely forbid, by the 
authority of Almighty God and his blessed apostle Peter, 
what you ask, and command you to oppose to the utmost 
of your power all who require it." 

Thus did this pretended vicar of Christ repeal the com- 
mand of the great Head of the church, " Search the Scrip- 
tures," forbidding them even to be read in public divine 
worship in the vernacular tongue. 

And yet during this period the Albigenses and Wal- 
denses, as well as WicklilFe and the Lollards in England, 
did obtain and study the Bible in their own tongues. The 



DISPENSATION OF GREGORY VII. 



349 



vigilance of Rome, however, early sought to guard against 
this source of danger. In 1229 the council of Toulouse 
passed a decree against the Waldenses and Albigenses, 
forbidding them to have the Bible translated into the vul- 
gar tongue. Similar prohibitions were issued in England. 

The aim of such prohibitions is twofold — to defend 
the hierarchy from exposure ; and also to keep an absolute 
monopoly of scriptural truth in their own hands, so as to 
subject the people perfectly to their power. 

Against such prohibitions Wickliffe said to the pope, 
" A prohibition of reading the sacred Scriptures, and a 
vanity of secular- dominion, would seem to partake too 
much of a disposition towards the blasphemous advance- 
ment OF Antichrist.'' He then condemns the hatred of 
the Romish corporation to the gospel, their claims of in- 
fallibility, their crowding to Rome to obtain dispensations 
and to " purchase a condemnation of the sacred 
Scriptures as heretical." 

In England the penalty for daring to read the Bible in 
the vernacular tongue was to be burned alive. The in- 
quisitors and ecclesiastics carried on a persecution against 
the disciples of Wickliffe, for a century and a half on this 
ground, and many were burned alive. In 1519 seven per- 
sons were burned at Coventry, having been convicted of 
the crime of having the Scriptures in their possession, or 
portions of the same. Such scenes were extensively re- 
peated. All of the Bibles also were burned that could be 
obtained — an example which Romish priests in this land 
are inteat to follow.' 

Thus was the first full development of the Papacy in the 
period of Gregory, the patron saint of American bishops, 
signalized by a systematic proscription of the word of 
God. In the ancient church such a course was unknown. 
All were exhorted to read and study the word of God. 



350 



THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED. 



But, when the Romish corporation had completed their 
structure of forgery and fraud, it was fit and reasonable 
that they should regard the word of God in the hands 
of the people as their irreconcilable and unconquerable 
enemy, even as they do to this day. 



PECULIAR DOCTRINES OF POPERY. 

This introduces another remarkable characteristic of 
this period. It was the period in which the most power- 
ful and unscriptural peculiarities of Popery were fully 
developed, established by supreme authority, and consoli- 
dated into a system. It has been often stated that there 
were such peculiarities ; but the time of their incorporation 
as authorized parts of the system has not been distinctly 
considered. Is it not, then, a striking fact that these great 
peculiarities are not venerable for antiquity, but are the 
comparatively late products of the fifth class of popes ? It 
is also noteworthy that these last-established doctrines 
are the main sinews of the power and the sources of the 
profit of the Eomish corporation. These peculiarities are 
the highest forms of the Papal supremacy — the servitude of 
the bishops, the celibacy of the clergy, auricular confession, 
penances, purgatory, the seven sacraments, and especially 
transubstantiation and masses. 

It is not denied of course that the celibacy of the clergy 
existed before this age. But it was fast going into dis- 
use when Gregory arose ; and he and his successors en- 
forced it as never before. 

Of the Papal supremacy and the subjugation of the 
bishops enough has been said. Nor is it necessary to add 
any thing on the subject of the confessional, which is a 
product of this period. 



DISPENSATION OF GREGORY VII. 



351 



The immense utility of the doctrine concerning purga- 
tory as a source of income to the priests has also been set 
forth. This doctrine also was established during this 
period. 

The doctrine of seven sacraments was also first fully 
developed and established in this age. The doctrine of 
transubstantiation and of masses which has ever since 
been a prime source of priestly power and an inexhausti- 
ble mine of wealth, deserves particular notice under this 
head. 

The profound learning and the unquestionable candor 
of Ranke will give great weight to the following tes- 
timony on these points from his History of the Refor- 
mation : — 

"The question, at what periods and under what circum- 
stances the distinguishing doctrines and practices of the 
Romish church were settled and acquired an ascendency, 
merits a minute and elaborate dissertation. _ 

"It is sufficient here to recall to the mind of the reader 
that this took place at a comparatively late period and pre- 
cisely in the century of the great hierarchical struggles. 

"It is well known that the institutions of the seven 
sacraments, whose circle embraces all the important events 
of the life of man and brings them into contact with the 
church, is ascribed to Peter Lombard, who lived in the 
twelfth century. It appears upon inquiry that the notions 
regarding the most important of them, the sacrament of 
the altar, were by no means very distinct in the church 
itself in the time of that great theologian. It is true that 
one of those synods \rhich, under Gregory YIL, had con- 
tributed so much to the establishment of the hierarchy, 
had added great weight to the doctrine of the reai pres- 
ence by the condemnation of Berengar ; but Peter Lom- 
bard as yet did not venture to decide in its favor. The 
word transubstantiation first became current in his time ; 
nor was it until the beginning of the thirteenth century 
that the idea and the word received the sanction of the 



352 



THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED. 



churcli. This, as is well known, was first given by the 
Lateran confession of faith in the year 1215 ; and it was 
not till later that the objections which till then had been 
constantly suggested by a deeper view of religion gradu- 
ally disappeared. 

" It is obvious, however, of what infinite importance 
this doctrine became to the service of the church, which 
has crystallized (if I may use the expression) around the 
mystery it involves. The ideas of the mystical and sen- 
sible presence of Christ in the church were thus imbodied 
in a living image ; the adoration of the host was intro- 
duced ; festivals in honor of this greatest of all miracles, 
incessantly repeated, were solemnized. Intimately con- 
nected with this is the great importance attached to the 
worship of the Virgin Mary, the mother of Christ, in the 
latter part of the middle ages. 

" The prerogatives of the priesthood are also essen- 
tially connected with this article of faith. The theory 
and doctrine of the priestly character were developed ; 
that is, of the power communicated to the priest by ordi- 
nation ' to make the body of Christ ' (as they did not 
scruple to say) ' to act in the person of Christ.' It is a 
product of the thirteenth century ; and it is to be traced 
principally to Alexander of Hales and Thomas Aquinas. 
This doctrine first gave to the separation of the priest- 
hood from the laity, which had indeed other and deeper 
causes, its full significancy. People began to see in the 
priest the^mediator between God and man. 

" This separation, regarded as a positive institution, is 
also, as is well known, an offspring of the same epoch. 
In the thirteenth century, spite of all opposition, the 
celibacy of the priesthood became an inviolable law. At 
the same time the cup began to be withheld from the 
laity. It was not denied that the efficacy of the eucha- 
rist in both kinds was more complete ; but it was said 
that the more worthy should be reserved for the more 
worthy — for those by whose instrumentality alone it was 
produced. ' It is not in the participation of the faithful,' 
says St. Thomas, * that the perfection of the sacrament 
lies, but solely in the consecration of the elements.' And 
in fact the church appeared far less designed for instruc- 



DISPENSATION OF GREGORY YII. 



353 



tion or for the preacHng of the gospel than for the show- 
ing forth of the great mystery ; and the priesthood is, 
through the sacrament, the sole depositary of the power 
to do this. It is through the priest that sanotification is 
imparted to the multitude. 

" This very separation of the priesthood from the laity 
gave its members boundless inilueQce over all other classes 
of the community. 

" It is a necessary part of the theory of the sacerdotal 
character above alluded to that the priest has the exclu- 
sive power of removing the obstacles which stand in the 
way of a participation in the mysterious grace of God : 
in this not even a saint had power to supersede him. 
But the absolution which he is authorized to grant is 
charged with certain conditions, the most imperative of 
which is confession. In the beginning of the thirteenth 
century it was peremptorily enjoined on every believer 
as a duty to confess all his sins, at least once in a year, 
to some particular priest. 

"It requires no elaborate argument to prove what 
an all-pervading influence auricular confession and the 
official supervision and guidance of consciences must give 
to the clergy. With this was connected a complete, or- 
ganized system of penances. 

" Above all, a character and position almost divine 
was thus conferred on the high priest, the Pope of Rome ; 
of whom it was assumed that he occupied the place of 
Christ in the mystical body of the church, which em- 
braced heaven and earth, the dead and the living. This 
conception of the functions and attributes of the pope 
was first filled out and perfected in the beginuing of the 
thirteenth century. Then, too, was the doctrine of the 
treasures of the church, on which the system of indul- 
gences rests, first promulgated. Innocent III. did not 
scruple to declare that what he did God did through 
him. Glossators added that the pope possessed the un- 
controlled will of God ; that his sentence superseded all 
reasons. With perverse and extravagant dialectics, they 
propounded the question, whether it were possible to ap- 
peal from the pope to God, and answered it in the nega- 
tive : seeing that God had the same tribunal as the 
30* 



354 



THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED. 



pope, and that it was impossible to appeal from anj 
being to himself. 

" It is clear that the Papacy must have already gained 
the victory over the empire — that it could no longer 
have any thing to fear either from master or rival — 
before opinions and doctrines of this kind could be en- 
tertained or avowed. In the age- of struggles and con- 
quests, the theory of the hierarchy gained ground step 
by step with the fact of material power. Never were 
theory and practice more intimately connected. 

"Nor was it to be believed that any interruption or 
pause in this course of things took place in the fifteenth 
century. The denial of the right of the clergy to with- 
hold the cup was first declared to be heresy at the coun- 
cil of Constance. Eugenius lY. first formally accepted 
the doctrine of the seven sacraments. The extraordinary 
school interpretation of the miraculous conception was 
first approved by the councils, favored by the popes, and 
accepted by the universities in this age. 

" It might appear that the worldly dispositions of the 
popes of those times, whose main objoct it was to enjoy 
life, to promote their dependants, and to enlarge their 
secular dominions, would have prejudiced their spiritual 
pretensions.. But, on the contrary, these were as vast 
and arrogant as ever. The only effect of the respect in- 
spired by the councils was, that the popes forbade any 
one to appeal to a council under pain of damnation. 
With what ardor do the curialist writers labor to demon- 
strate the infallibility of the pope ! John of Torquema- 
da is unwearied in heaping together analogies from Scrip- 
ture, maxims of the fathers, and passages out of the false 
decretals for this end. He goes so far as to maintain that, 
were there not a head of the church who could decide all 
controversies and remove all doubts, it might be possible 
to doubt of the Holy Scriptures themselves, which de- 
rived their authority only from the church ; which, again, 
could not be conceived as existing without the pope. In 
the beginning of the sixteenth century, the well-known 
Dominican, Thomas of Gaeta, did not hesitate to declare 
the church a born slave, who could have no other remedy 
against a bad pope than to pray for him without ceasing. 



DISPENSATION OF GREGORY VII. 



355 



PECUNIARY EXTORTIONS. 

In this age also was deyeloped a system of pecuniary 
extortions that it is hard either to imagine or believe 
until we study the most authentic records of the age. 

To understand its extent, we must divide these exac- 
tions into two classes — those needed to sustain the ex- 
travagance of the Roman court and to execute their vast 
plans for governing the world ; and those that were de- 
signed to support and enrich the secular clergy and the 
various monastic orders in each particular nation. 

Gregory's demand of tribute in the form of Peter's 
pence comes into the first class ; and in this way im- 
mense sums were raised. The pope also managed to de- 
rive an immense income from a trade in bishoprics and 
livings. A small degree of this traffic aroused the tender 
conscience of Gregory to depose Henry ; but by the popes 
it was practised without modesty or limitation. They 
contrived also to obtain immense profits for their favor- 
ites and tools at Rome by setting up claims to the right 
to interfere, not only in the election of bishops, but also 
in the conferment of benefices in the various dioceses of 
all Europe. The power of the patronage of the Presi- 
dent of the United States can give but a faint idea of the 
power of patronage thus wielded by the pope. Take 
one single example from the history of England, our 
motherland. In the thirteenth century, Gregory IX., 
the great systematizer of the canon law, filled all the 
best benefices in England with his Italian priests. It 
was alleged, as Hallam states, in a remonstrance in the 
name of the whole nation, that they drew from England, 
in the middle of the thirteenth century, sixty or seventy 
thousand marks a year — a sum far exceeding the royal 



356 THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED. 

revenues. A similar state of things existed in France 
and Germany. These Italian favorites were allowed to 
employ curates, and, as non-residents, to live in luxury 
and ease. Some of them were thus enabled to hold from 
the pope fifty or sixty preferments. 

The popes also at length imposed a tax on the national 
clergy ; and then the rapacity of Papal exactions was with- 
out bounds. Hallam states that " the usurers of Cahora 
and Lombardy residing in London took up the trade of 
agency for the pope ; and in a few years he is said through 
them, partly by levies of money, partly by the revenues 
of benefices, to have plundered the kingdom of nine hun- 
dred and fifty thousand marks — a sum equivalent to not 
less than fifteen millions sterling at present." 

Immense amounts were also extorted from all newly- 
appointed bishops for the conferment of the pallium, or 
bishop's cloak. The cost of a pallium for Mainz in Ger- 
many was twenty thousand gulden, assessed on the sev- 
eral parts of the see. Three hundred thousand gulden, 
it was calculated, were thus yearly absorbed from Ger- 
many by Eome. 

In view of such exactions of all kinds, Edward III. ad- 
dressed a strong remonstrance to Clement YI., declaring 
that they were intolerable and must be remedied. But it 
was of no avail. Shoberl states that in 1376 the commons 
in Parliament presented to the king an urgent remon- 
strance, afiirming, what seems almost incredible, that " the 
taxes paid to the pope yearly amounted to five times as 
much as the taxes paid to the king." 

On this point F. Shoberl says, — 

" The rapacity of the popes, who, as we have seen, 
claimed the right of nominating to all benefices and 
made the exercise of it a source of prodigious wealth, 
had for many years excited violent murmurs, not in Eng- 
land only, but throughout all Christendom. By such 



DISPENSATION OF GREGORY YII. 



357 



means Pope John XXII. was enabled to leave at his 
death twenty-two millions of florins in his colFers. ' This 
* prodigious treasure/ says Fleury, ' was amassed by the 
industry of his holiness, who reserved for himself the 
reversion of the benefices of all the collegiate churches 
in Christendom, alleging that he did so to prevent 
simony. Moreover by virtue of this reservation he never 
directly confirmed the election of any prelate, but pro- 
moted a bishop to an archbishopric, and put an inferior 
bishop in his place : hence it frequently happened that 
the vacancy of an archbishopric or a patriarchate occa- 
sioned six promotions or more, producing large sums of 
money to the apostolic chamber.' 

" When Innocent YI. sent Philip de Cabassole to Ger- 
many to levy the tenth of all the ecclesiastical revenues, 
the prelates of that country loudly complained of this new 
exaction. ' The Romans,' said one of them, exhorting his 
brethren to oppose it, ' have always looked upon Germany 
as a gold mine, and invented divers means of exhausting 
it. What doth the pope give to this kingdom but letters 
and words ? Let him dispose of all benefices as far as 
the collation goes ; but let him leave the revenues to 
those who perform the duties. We send money enough to 
Italy for divers merchandises, and to Avignon, [where the 
Papal court was then residing,] for our sons who are 
studying there or soliciting, we will not say buying, bene- 
fices. All of you well know that large sums of money are 
every year carried from Germany to the court of the pope 
for the confirmation of prelates, for the grant of beTiefices, 
for the prosecution of suits and appeals to the holy see, for 
dispensations, absolutions, indulgences, privileges, and other fa- 
vors. In all times the archbishops confirmed the elec- 
tions of the bishops, their suffragans. It was Pope John 
XXII. who in our time wrested this right from them by 
violence. And now the pope is again demanding from 
the clergy a new and unheard-of subsidy, threatening with 
censures such as will not give it or as shall oppose it. 
Stop the beginning of the evil, and suffer not this dis- 
graceful servitude to be established.' " 

It appears from this statement that Papal ingenuity 



358 THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED. 

exhausted itself in devising various modes of obtaining 
money. Who does not understand the immense trade 
in indulgences carried on by them and their agents in 
all Europe ? 

So, too, dispensations from impediments to marriage 
were a constant source of revenue. To this must be 
added pilgrimages, jubilees, and other ingenious modes 
of deluding the people and filling the pope's coffers with 
their hard-earned wages. 

Besides all this, immense sums were obtained by the 
mendicant friars — that all-pervading Papal army. From 
Germany, for example, shortly before the reformation, 
they collected, according to Ranke, a yearly revenue of 
one million gulden. 

It must be borne in mind also that the secular clergy 
as well as the monasteries drew largely on the resources 
of the people. The monasteries and regular clergy held 
about one half of the land of Europe, and besides, by the 
various kinds of spiritual trafi&c already described, ab- 
sorbed the earnings of the people. 

_ I do not afiirm that by the locusts — who, under their 
leader Apollyon, issued from the smoke of the bottomless 
pit to prey upon men and to torment them — God meant to 
describe the Eomish corporation, and monks, and clergy, 
under their leader the pope. But, however this may be, 
one thing is plain — no symbol can better describe them 
and their deeds. One long, loud, universal cry went up 
throughout Europe, alike from kings, nobles, and people, 
of the rapacious and plundering spirit of Rome and her 
myrmidons. None but those who experienced it can ever 
conceive how great was the plague. The language of the 
times labors in vain to express it. Even imagination 
fails and is powerless. 

Such is one of the most remarkable aspects of this 



DISPENSATION OF GREGORY VII. 



359 



period — a period well deserving the study of Americans. 
It was the period created by the principles of Gregory 
VII., the very pontiff whom the Romish bishops of this 
country have chosen as the patron saint of America. 

PAPAL MORALITY. 

As the main claim of the Papal corporation is, that it 
is the only true and holy church, and the only author of 
holiness, we ought to find in this age of its supremacy 
abundant evidence of the truth of such claims. It is 
needless to say that we shall seek for them in vain. On 
the other hand, in this age a degree of moral corruption 
was developed in the Roman court and in the community 
the depths of which it is almost impossible to fathom and 
the atrocity of which is beyond description. 

The celibacy of the clergy, as has been shown, in this pe- - 
riod had thoroughly debauched the whole European world. 
The selfish, treacherous, and rapacious policy of the Papal 
court at length utterly corrupted the policy of kings. 
Machiavelli, in his Prince, did but apply to the state the 
Papal principles as to ecclesiastical expediency. Kings, 
following Papal maxims, justified and employed perjury, 
perfidy, poisoning, and secret murder for state ends. Of 
all these things the court of Rome had furnished abundant 
examples. It seemed to be God's purpose to develop the 
true tendency of the maxims of the Papal court in the 
atrocious life and death of Alexander YI. Sismondi de- 
clares that by reason of such extreme corruption " the six- 
teenth century was marked by an entire abandonment of 
all morals, honor, and virtue." Steinmetz, in his history 
of the Jesuits, says, " In Italy, amidst its splendor of arts 
and science and its talk of religion, morals arc so cor- 



360 THE PAPAL COXSPIRACY EXPOSED. 

rupted that public shame is utterly lost : the vices of 
individuals even the most remarkable for their riches, 
rank, and position exhibit a front of brass in the boastful 
impudence of guilt. Nothing is concealed — nothing dis- 
graces." " It seems as if men look on crime as their 
meals — with an appetite or not, as the case may be ; but 
all is natural ; children grow up like their parents — born 
in the midst of wickedness, how can they be otherwise ? " 
Of the religion producing such results he says, " It was 
not Christianity, but a timeserving, political, sensual, las- 
civious, avaricious system formed by the passions and in- 
tellect of men." 

In a review of the life and works of Machiavelli, Ma- 
caulay thus speaks of his most famous work : — 

" It is indeed scarcely possible for any person not well 
acquainted with the history and literature of Italy to read 
without horror and amazement the celebrated treatise 
which has brought so much obloquy on the name of 
Machiavelli. Such a display of wickedness, — naked, yet 
not ashamed, — such cool, judicious, scientiac atrocity, 
seem rather to belong to a fiend than to the most de- 
praved of men. Principles which the most hardened ruf- 
fian would scarcely hint to his most trusted accomplice, or 
avow, without the disguise of some palliating sophism, even 
to his own mind, are professed without the slightest cir- 
cumlocution, and assumed as the fundamental axioms of 
all political science." 

After trying and rejecting various modes of accounting 
for such a moral phenomenon, he comes to the conclusion 
that Machiavelli was a kind, well-meaning man, but that 
the morals of Italy had been so debased by the Papacy that 
neither he nor any one around him had any idea that \ 
there was any thing wrong or immoral in his book. He 
says,— 



DISPENSATION OF GREGORY VIL 



361 



" There is no reason whatever to think that those 
amongst whom he lived saw any thing shocking or in- 
congruous in his writings. Abundant proofs remain of 
the high estimation in which both his works and his per- 
son were held by the most respectable among his contem- 
poraries. Clement VII. patronized the publication of 
those very books which the council of Trent in the fol- 
lowing generation pronounced unfit for the perusal of 
Christians. Some members of the democratical party 
censured the secretary for dedicating the Prince to a pa- 
tron who bore the unpopular name of Medici ; but to those 
immoral doctrines which have since called forth such se- 
vere reprehensions no exception appears to have been 
taken. The cry against them was first raised beyond the 
Alps, and seems to have been heard with amazement in 
Italy. The earliest assailant, as far as we are aware, was 
a countryman of our own, Cardinal Pole. The author of 
the Anti-Machiavelli was a French Protestant." 

This is what the mother of harlots and of abominations 
effected for Italy and Rome. Let us now see what she 
did for France and Avignon during the seventy years' res- 
idence of the Papacy there after Boniface VIII. Wick- 
liffe was sent on a mission to the Papal court to secure the 
correction of abuses in England. The mission was vain ; 
but not so his opportunities of observation. It affected 
him as Rome at a later day did Luther. Shoberl says, — 

"If no immediate result was obtained by this mission, 
still the opportunities which it afforded Wickliffe for ob- 
servation convinced him that the system of the Papal 
court and its doctrines were equally corrupt. These con- 
victions he did not fail to express on his return in the 
boldest manner. He insisted that tlie Scriptures contain 
all truths necessary to salvation, and that in them only is 
to be found the perfect rule of Christian practice ; he de- 
nied the authority of the pope in temporal matters ; pro- 
claimed that he was the man of sin, the son of perdition, 
described by St. Paul, ' Sitting as God in the temple of 



362 



THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED. 



God, showing himself that he is God/ and denounced him 
as Antichrist. These doctrines Wickliffe openly taught 
and maintained ; and well he might, for at this period the 
popes themselves, their court, and the clergy in general, 
pampered by the wealth which their rapacious arts were 
incessantly supplying, exhibited a corruption of morals, a 
depravity, a licentiousness scarcely to be conceived, much 
less described. In assuming the sacerdotal office they 
seemed to have vowed utterly to discard all that man- 
kind had been accustomed to call virtue. It is impossi- 
ble to read without profound horror the description given 
by Petrarch, himself a churchman, of the dissoluteness of 
the Papal court in the fourteenth century while resident 
at Avignon ; and all contemporary accounts prove that he 
is not chargeable with having recurred in his picture to 
the poet's license. ' You imagine,' he writes in a letter 
to a friend, ' that the city of Avignon is the same now that 
it was when you resided in it. No ; it is very diiferent. 
It was then, it is true, the worst and vilest place on earth ; 
now it is become a terrestrial hell, an abode of fiends and 
devils, a receptacle of all that is most wicked and abom- 
inable. What I tell you is not from hearsay, but from my 
own knowledge and experience. In this city there is no 
piety, no reverence or fear of God, no faith or charity ; 
notliing tliat is holy, just, equitable, or humane. Why 
should I speak of truth, where not only the houses, palaces, 
courts, churches, and the thrones of popes and cardinals, 
but the very earth and air seem to teem with lies ? A fu- 
ture state, heaven, hell, and judgment are openly turned 
into ridicule as childish fables. Good men have of late 
been treated with so much scorn and contempt that there 
is not one left among them to be an object of laughter.' 
In the same letter he declares that the more profligate a 
man was, the more certain he was of preferment in the 
church. 

" It is no wonder that, amidst so deep a corruption of 
manners in those whose lives should be patterns to the 
other classes of society, the vices of the clergy were 
standing subjects of satire in every country of Europe, 
and especially England, in the fourteenth century. The 
poems of Chaucer aboufid in passages of this kind ; and 



DISPENSATION OF GREGORY VII. 



863 



the Plougliman's Tale is one continued satire upon tlie 
clergy for their gross ignorance, cruelty, covetousness, 
simony, vanity, pride, ambition, drunkenness, gluttony, 
lechery, and other vices. This profligacy gave rise to an 
opinion, which universally prevailed, that the coming of 
Antichrist was at hand. We are told indeed that, in 1364, 
Dr. Nicholas Orem, a celebrated preacher, in a sermon be- 
fore the pope and cardinals, undertook to demonstrate this 
proposition from the enormous corruption and the intol- 
erable abuses of the church. Even Petrarch, though not 
scrupulous in regard to doctrines and ceremonies, was so 
shocked at the gross depravity of the Papal court that he 
applied that passage in the book of Revelation concern- 
ing Babylon, the mother of harlots and of all abomina- 
tions, to the city of Avignon, where, as it has been 
observed, the pope then resided." 

It is not until we understand such a state of shameless 
moral debasement that we can regard as credible what is 
nevertheless a fact, that, at the close of the council of Ly- 
ons, Cardinal Hugo dared to utter to the citizens, as a 
brazen joke, the following address, descriptive of a fact : 
" My friends, we have conferred on this place a great ben- 
efit. When we came here there was a number of houses 
of ill fame ; but now there is but one ; but that one ex- 
tends from the eastern to the western gate of the city." 

The infidelity that reigned at Avignon no less devel- 
oped itself at Rome. On this subject Macaulay says, — ■ . 

" During the generation which preceded the reforma- 
tion that court had been a scandal to the Christian name. 
Its annals are black with treason, murder, and incest. 
Even its more respectable members were utterly unfit to 
be ministers of religion. They were men like Leo X. ; 
men who, with the Latinity of the Augustan age, had ac- 
quired its atheistical and scof&ng spirit. They regarded 
these Christian mysteries of which they were stewards 
just as the Augur Cicero and the Pontifex Maximus Cas- 
sar regarded the Sibylline books and the pecking of the 



364 



THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED. 



sacred chickens. Among themselves tliey spoke of the 
incarnation, the eucharist, and the Trinity in the same 
tone in which Cotta and Yelleius talked of the oracle i 
of Delphi or of the voice of Faunus in the mountains. \ 
Their years glided by in a soft dream of sensual and intel- j 
lectual voluptuousness. Choice cookery, delicious wines, 
lovely women, hounds, falcons, horses, newly-discovered 
manuscripts of the classics, sonnets and burlesque ro- 
mances in the sweetest Tuscan, just as licentious as a 
fine sense of the graceful would permit ; plates from the 
hand of a Benvenuto ; designs for palaces by Michael An- 
gelo ; frescoes by Raphael ; busts, mosaics, and gems just 
dug up from among the ruins of ancient temples and vil- 
las, — these things were the delight and even the serious 
business of their lives." 

Such was the ineffable malignity of the influence of the 
Roman corporation, falsely called a church, when in its 
full development and in its highest glory. How, then, 
must it have appeared in the sight of a pure and holy 
God ? We know how ; for prophecy has informed us 
what he will declare concerning it when the hour of his 
judgment is fully come. Then will he set it forth as being 
a habitation of devils, the hold of every foul spirit, and a 
cage of every unclean and hateful bird ; a great sorceress 
and harlot, making all nations drunk with the wine of the 
wrath o^ her fornication, and herself drunk with the blood 
of the saints. 



PART IV. 



THE JUDGMENT OF GOD AND THE BURNING 
OF BABYLON. 



CHAPTER I. 

BABYLON ON FIRE. 

On the morning of the 10th day of December, 1520, 
the inhabitants of Wittemberg, in Germany, were aroused 
and filled with amazement by the breaking out of a great 
conflagration at the east gate of the city. The intelli- 
gence of this conflagration at once spread as on the wings 
of the wind, and wherever it came it no less aroused and 
amazed the world. It was but the emblem of a greater 
conflagration which had then broken out, and which has 
continued to burn to this day, and which is destined still 
to burn with fiercer flames until Babylon the great is ut- 
terly burned with fire by the avenging judgment of her 
almighty Judge. From that day to this intense efforts 
have been made to extinguish the mighty conflagration. 
The great fire company of the Jesuits was formed for this 
especial end, and have labored manfully, but in vain. It 

31 * (365) 



BG6 THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED. 

still burns, and will burn till the avenging judgment of 
God is completed. 

Not least of all does tlie conflagration rage in this land. 
The very fundamental principles of our civil and religious 
institutions are devouring fire to the great Babylon ; for 
which reason earnest efforts are now made to quench their 
fiery energy. But all shall be in vain. 

But let us draw near and consider the burning in Wit- 
temberg. Of it we find the following authentic account : 
"This 10th day of December, in the year 1520, at the 
ninth hour of the day, were burned at Wittemberg, at 
the east gate, near the Holy Cross, all the pope's books, 
the Decree^ the Decretals^ the Extravagante of Clement YI., 
Leo X.'s last bull, the Angelic Sum, Eck's Chrysoprasus, 
and some other works of Eck's and Emser's. Is not this 
new ? " 

What was this last bull of Leo X. ? It was the bull of 
excommunication of one Martin Luther. What had he 
done? He had in the year 1517 seriously interfered with 
the trading operations of the great corporation in the sale 
of indulgences for the professed purpose of building St. 
Peter's Church at Rome. When called to account, he had 
refused to retract what he had said. When called on to 
dispute, he had refused to be beaten in an argument. 
When the authority of the pope was quoted against him, 
he had dared to call in question that authority, as of mod- 
ern origin. When the forged decretals were quoted against 
him, though at first silenced, not knowing them to be forged? 
he at last discovered the imposture, and dared to denounce 
the pope and his forgeries. When pressed by the authority 
of councils, he dared to declare that councils were not 
infallible, and had erred, and that the Bible alone was in- 
fallible. He had dared, moreover, to appeal to the Ger- 
man princes to arouse themselves and resist the usurpa- 



BABYLON ON FIRE. 



367 



tions and aggressions of the pope. He had dared to assail 
the celibacy of the clergy, and the pope's temporal as well 
as hig spiritual monarchy, and to demand that all things 
should be reduced to order according to the word of God 
and the testimony of history. 

This, in brief, was what Martin Luther had done ; and 
in truth it would seem to have/been enough, if there were 
any virtue in bulls, to call for one of the most roaring 
kind and the most terrific energy. A(fcordingly it came ; 
and we have seen its reception by Luther, and its doom. 

But the burning of the bull was not the most significant 
part of the proceedings. With it were burned the forged 
decretals and the canon law. Astonishing audacity ! So,- 
then, the very foundations of Babylon the great are utterly 
burned with fire. 

Who, then, had the courage, at that age and in those 
circumstances, to do that deed ? I answer, It was not by 
the courage of man that it was done, but by the courage 
of God. Nor did it express human passion. It was but 
an outward manifestation of the righteous judgment of 
the invisible yet present and avenging God. 

When Luther began, he had not the remotest conception 
of the issue to which he should come. He believed in his 
heart that the pope had, by the will of God, supreme au- 
thority in the church. He trembled, step by step, as he 
encountered those deeprooted prejudices which had en- 
slaved him as well as the rest of Europe. But God would 
not let him rest. His word was in him like a fire in his 
bones as truth after truth was revealed to him ; and he 
was weary with forbearing and could not stay. God, 
too, who fits his instruments for his work, had fitted him 
to encounter the men and the system with whom he had 
to deal. They were impudent, and stiffnecked, and hard- 
hearted, and rebellious j but God made his face strong 



368 



THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED. 



against their faces and his forehead strong against their 
foreheads. As an adamant, harder than a flint, he made 
his forehead against their impudence and audacity. 

When our souls have been filled with indignation, in 
view of the inconceivable abominations and atrocious 
slaughters of the Papacy, it is a joy to find that God has 
at length given to one man energy and courage, by words 
and by acts, to express the indignation of God. A brief 
account of the conflagration at Wittemberg has been 
given in the words of Luther himself. Let us now draw 
near and take a more full view of the scene as depicted 
by D'Aubigne : — 

" On the 10th of December a placard was posted on 
the walls of the University of Wittemberg, inviting the 
professors and students to be present at nine o'clock in the 
morning at the eastern gate, near the Holy Cross. A 
great number of doctors and students assembled ; and Lu- 
ther, walking at their head, conducted the procession to 
the appointed place. How many burning piles has Rome 
erected during the course of ages ! Luther resolves to 
make a better application of the great Roman principle. 
It is only a few old papers that are about to be destroyed ; 
and fire, thinks he, is intended for that purpose. A scaf- 
fold had been prepared. One of the oldest masters of 
arts set fire to it. As the flames rose high into the air 
the formidable Augustine, wearing his frock, approached 
the pile, carrying the Canon Law, the Decretals, the Clem- 
entines, the Papal Extravagants, some writings by Eck 
and Emser, and the pope's bull. The decretals having 
been first consumed, Luther held up the bull and said, 
' Since thou hast vexed the Holy One of the Lord, may 
everlasting fire vex and consume thee ! ' He then flung 
it into the flames. Never had war been declared with 
greater energy and resolution. After this Luther calmly 
returned to the city ; and the crowd of doctors, professors, 
and students, testifying their approval by loud cheers, 
reentered Wittemberg with him. * The decretals/ said 
Luther, ' resemble a body whose face is meek as a young 



BABYLON ON FIRE. 



369 



maiden's, whose limbs are full of violence like those of a 
lion, and whose tail is filled with wiles like a serpent. 
Among all the laws of the popes, there is not one word 
that teaches us who is Jesus Christ.' ' My enemies,' said 
he on another occasion, ' have been able, by burning my 
books, to injure the cause of truth in the minds of the 
common people, and destroy their souls ; for this reason I 
consumed their books in return. A serious struggle has 
just begun. Hitherto I have been only playing with the 
pope. I began this work in God's name ; it will be ended 
without me and by his might. If they dare burn my 
books, in which more of the gospel is to be found (I speak 
without boasting) than in all the books of the pope, I can 
with much greater reason burn theirs, in which no good 
can be discovered.' 

" Luther had reentered Wittemberg. On the morrow 
the lecture room was more crowded than usual. All minds 
were in a state of excitement ; a solemn feeling pervaded 
the assembly ; they waited, expecting an address from the 
doctor. He lectured on the Psalms — a course that he 
had commenced in the month of March in the preceding 
year. Having finished his explanations he remained silent 
a few minutes, and then continued, energetically, ' Be on 
your guard against the laws and statutes of the pope. I 
have burned his decretals ; but this is merely child's play. 
It is time, and more than time, that the pope were burned ; 
that is, (explaining himself immediately,) the see of Rome, 
with all its doctrines and abominations.' Then, assuming 
a more solemn tone, he added, ' If you do not contend with 
your whole heart against the impious government of the 
pope, you cannot be saved. Whoever takes delight in the 
religion and worship of Popery will be eternally lost in 
the world to come.' 

" ' If you reject it,' continued he, ' you must expect to 
incur every kind of danger, and even to lose your lives. 
But it is far better to be exposed to such perils in this 
world than to keep silence. So long as I live I will de- 
nounce to my brethren the sore and the plague of Baby- 
lon, for fear that many who are with us should fall back 
like the rest into the loottomless pit.' 

" We can scarcely imagine the effect produced on the 
assembly by this discourse, the energy of which surprises 



370 



THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED. 



US. ' Not one among us/ adds the candid student who has 
handed it down, ' unless he be a senseless log of wood, 
(as all the Papists are, he says parenthetically,) doubts 
that this is truth pure and undefiled. It is evident to all 
believers that Dr. Luther is an angel of the living God, 
called to feed Christ's wandering sheep with the word 
of God.'" 

Here we have beyond all doubt the judgment of God, 
uttered by one of his servants whom he had raised up 
and qualified to engage in the great work upon which the 
interests of the church and the world and the glory of 
God were suspended. 

He had prepared the way for the work by the removal 
of the seat of the Papacy to Avignon, in France, after the 
death of Boniface YIH., and by the great and terrible 
schism that followed soon after it was removed again to 
Rome. For fifty years there were two rival lines of 
popes, each anathematizing the other and denouncing each 
other's crimes with about equal truth. Europe was nearly 
equally divided between them ; and, as Bonnechose saj^s, 
" The nations that were subject to the pope, and bent the 
knee before this new divinity, knew not where to find 
their idol." Though the council of Constance healed the 
schism, it did not obliterate from the mind of Europe the 
questionings to which it gave rise. And as the arrogance, 
and rapacity, and immorality of the court of Rome in- 
creased, kings and people were so alienated, that, when 
Luther burned the pope's bull, the pope could not induce 
the secular powers to burn him ; and soon one half of Eu- 
rope was in open revolt against the Papal corporation. 

From that day to this the conflagration has gone on in 
different parts of the great city. In some parts it has 
been for a time extinguished by torrents of blood. But 
it is a fire kindled by God, the Omnipresent, the Almighty. 
Before it can be quenched, God must be dethroned. 



CHAPTER II. 



THE FIRE OF GOD. 

What, then, are those great elements of truth through 
which God develops his fiery energy and by which he 
will at last utterly consume Babylon the great ? 

It is greatly for our interest to understand these truths. 
Our civil institutions as well as our religious are based , 
upon them ; and between them and the Papal corporation 
there is a necessary, an inevitable, a mortal conflict. 
One or the other must die. 

The vital principle of the Romish corporation, as we have 
seen, is, that it is God's avowed purpose in communicating 
his grace to mankind to act through a corporate body ; and 
that they are that body, under the pope, their head. 

In direct antagonism to this is the great truth that, in 
communicating his grace to man, it is not God's purpose 
to limit himself to act through any one corporation what- 
ever, much less through the corporation of Rome. On 
the other hand, it is his purpose, and ever has been, to 
act at his pleasure through individuals, and to array them 
against any and all corporations whenever necessary to 
rebuke their negligence of duty or disobedience to God. 

It will not be denied, not even by a Romanist with 
any reverence for God, that God is able, if he pleases, to 
manifest himself to individuals in all ages, independently 
of any corporation ; to illuminate them, to sanctify them, 

(371) 



372 



THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED. 



to avert mental disease, to give them wisdom, courage, dis- 
cretion, zeal, energy, and in all things to qualify them to 
do his will. None but an atheist can deny that God has 
the power to do this. 

The question is simply one of fact. It is this : Is it 
God's will to do this ? To this the Papists reply. No ; 
the Protestants, Yes. 

Here, then, is the issue ; and there neither is nor can 
be a greater issue than this. It is an issue that divides 
the world, and the decision of which will agitate the 
world as with an earthquake. 

The claim of any corporation, on any ground, of a 
monopoly of the grace of God, is the great source of spirit- 
ual despotism and of religious and civil bondage. It is 
the source of all ecclesiastical arrogance and ambition. 
It is an impious invasion of the rights of individual 
minds in God and of the rights of God in individual 
minds. It assails the principles on which God has organ- 
ized society, not only in this, but in all worlds. It is a 
direct warfare with the purposes and with the omnipo- 
tence of God. 

And yet it is upon this claim that the corporation of 
Kome is based. This corporation arrogates the right to 
come between God and all individuals whatever. No 
one can come to God but through them ; nor will God 
come to any one but through them. Outside of them- 
selves there is no God, no radiance of heaven ; all is 
empty of divine grace and dark as the bottomless pit. 

This is the great, the impious, the malignant, the all- 
comprehending, the heaven-daring, the God-defying lie of 
Romanism. It is a lie on earth ; it is a lie in all worlds ; 
it is at war with the very nature and structure of all 
created minds. 

Never will the human mind be properly developed, 



THE FIRE OF GOD. 



373 



never will man have true freedom, never will society be 
truly organized till this is properly understood. 

Let us, then, look into this matter. If we once thor- 
oughly understand it, we shall need to consider little else 
in order to see the impious and damnable nature of the 
claims of Rome. As Americans, and as lovers of our 
country and of the world, we are specially called on to 
go to the very roots of this question. We are bound to 
dig deep, till we are sure that all of our principles and 
institutions are based on the solid rock of eternal truth. 

It is a question of deep interest. What is God's design 
in raising up this nation ? What is the destiny of our in- 
stitutions, and what their dangers ? The usual answer 
among us has been, To aid in the work of destroying the 
despotisms of the old world ; and their chief danger is 
from the Papacy and its connected civil systems. A new 
answer has lately been given : Our chief danger lies in 
our revolt from the Papacy. Nothing but the Papacy 
can save us. 

One thing is plain — nothing but God can save us ; and 
he will not save us unless we acknowledge and defend his 
rights in the human soul and the rights of the human 
soul in him. I propose to develop them ; to show their 
relations to all organizations, civil or ecclesiastical ; and 
to demonstrate that the claims of the Popish hierarchy 
are at war with them all. 



GOD'S RIGHTS IN THE SOUL AND OF THE SOUL IN GOD. 

God's rights in the soul will be disclosed by studying, 
both in the soul and in his word, his design in making it, 
its relations to God, and the principles of his law. From 
both sources we learn that God did not design to make 



374 



THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED. 



tlie soul capable of independent perfection — that is, per- 
fection in the separate and independent use of its own 
powers. On the other hand, the soul was either design- 
edly, or more probably of necessity, made and left imper- 
fect in itself, and unable to gain its true destiny without 
a concurrent action of God in and through it. Thus no 
plant has in itself the power of perfect development and 
growth out of its proper relations to the soil, air, light, 
heat, and water, that are designed to nourish and develop 
it. Now, as these elements are to the development of a 
plant, so is God to the development and perfection of the 
mind. All created minds have a natural and an eternal 
need of God in order to retain moral and intellectual 
health and to secure a beautiful and perfect development. 

This necessity is so founded in the nature of things that 
it cannot be suspended. The idea that any mind can be 
to itself as a god, knowing good and evil, and that it is 
or can be perfect in itself without a constant concurrent 
influence of God, is the root of pride and all falsehood ; 
it is an essential revolt from God and all truth. It was 
the primal sin and ruin of Satan ; it ia the radical ele- 
ment of his most fatal temptations in this age of pride 
and of the worship of human reason. 

Let us, then, look at the correlation of God and of the 
human mind. As God is infinite in intellect, in love, in 
sympathy, in power ; and as he fills all time and all space 
by his existence, attributes, and kingdom ; and as of the 
increase of his kingdom there is to be no end ; and as the 
mind was made to know him and be blessed in his love, — 
it was made with power to conceive of infinitude in intel- 
lect, emotion, sympathy, time, space, numbers, and power, 
but not to fill its own conceptions. It was made to be 
filled with all the fulness of God, and with nothing be- 
sides. He is the natural coniplement of the soul ; and in 
him it lives and is perfected. 



THE FIRE OF GOD. 



375 



Hence the primary law of the mind is direct conscious 
unity with God in thought, love, and will. He that 
dwelleth in love dwelleth in God and God in him. Ye 
shall know, that ye are in me and I in you. Because I 
live, ye shall live also. I live ; yet not I, but Christ liveth 
in me. Thou art the Fountain of life. In thy light shall 
we see light." Hence God's rights in the soul involve the 
right to insist that no created being or corporation shall 
attempt to interfere with or to prevent this direct union 
of the soul to God, this conscious personal contact of the 
soul with God. 

The rights of the soul in God correspond. The soul 
has a right to claim at all times this personal access to 
God, this conscious personal union to him and life and 
perfection in and by him. No man or body of men have 
a right to attempt to monopolize it any more than to mo- 
nopolize the right to breathe the air or to see the sun. 
These are the fundamental rights of God and of every 
created being in his universe. No personal rights, no 
laws of organization, can rise above them. They are the 
very basis of the universe — irrepealable, eternal. 

Let us study the relations of these principles to faith. 
The mind of man was made to rest in a certain knowledge 
of spiritual truth. But the centre of all truth is God ; 
for he is the greatest of objects to be known, and the Cre- 
ator of all existences besides himself, and rules through- 
out the universe, and works all things after the counsel 
of his own will. Of him, through him, and to him are 
all things. Hence he is the Author of all truth ; he sees it 
in all its relations and harmonies ; and he is the Sun who, 
by his illuminating power, makes the system in its symme- 
try visible to other minds. 

It is therefore the glorious prerogative of God, and of 
God alone, to give to any mind that highest certainty of 



37*0 THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED. 

spiritual truth which is necessary to give rest to the souL 
The mind, being imperfect in itself, cannot, by any process 
of reasoning and power of its own, put itself in that* 
state of clear and certain perception of the system in 
which it is, except by that concurrent action bf God and 
the soul for which it was made. To a soul in this state 
God is a constant, unsetting Sun, in whose light all truth 
is seen in its true colors and proportions. It is not a 
state of mysticism or enthusiasm, (using these terms in 
the common bad sense,) but a state of calm intellectual 
and moral health and life, in which God guides and aids 
in the study of all truth, whether disclosed in the struc- 
ture and laws of the mind itself, or of the body, or of the 
material world, or by providence, or by the revealed 
Scriptures, and gives a point of vision from which to see 
all truth. 

This concurrent action of the divine and human mind 
is the highest element of the faith by which God keeps 
the soul holy unto salvation. There is a natural faith, in- 
volving all that the mind can do to produce belief by a 
logical exercise of its own powers. But it does not sat- 
isfy the wants of the mind ; it does not give rest to all 
its powers ; it does not give that certainty and repose 
for which it longs. The concurrent action of God with 
the mind introduces a supernatural element, and thus per- 
fects faith, meets all the demands of the mind, and gives 
it rest in God. In his light it sees light and is certain. 
(See 1 John. ii. 26, 27.) 

This leads to no neglect of evidence or means of knowl- 
edge. It impels to the study of the mind as made in the 
image of God, and therefore the key to unlock his mind 
to the soul, to the study of his works, and providence, 
and word, as parts of one harmonious disclosure of God 
and his plans in divers ways. It uses all parts of the sys- 
tem of truth, and neglects none. 



THE FIRE OF GOD. 



377 



Hence it is a right of God that all souls shall come di- 
rectly to him for faith ; and it is the right of all souls 
thus to come. Indeed it is absurd to think of gaining it 
in any other way, and an invasion of the rights of God 
and of man to affirm that any man or body of men can 
stand between God and the soul as essential to faith. 

This state of faith, I have said, is supernatural ; not 
because it does not correspond with the natural and origi- 
nal state of the mind, but because all men are fallen, and 
depraved, and separated from God by sin. Hence the need 
of atonement, pardon, and regeneration by the Holy Spir- 
it in order to bring the mind into this state of faith. 
Hence all efforts to reach God except through Christ 
fail of producing faith, because they do not convince of 
sin, purify and forgive, and truly reunite to God. All 
such efforts land in infidelity, pantheism, or atheism. 



MODES OF DIVINE ACTION IN SOCIETY. 

Thus have we considered God's direct action on the 
soul and the rights growing out of it. Besides this, God 
resorts to two indirect modes of action on the soul — 
one through individuals, another through organizations. 
But these are always subordinated to his rights as it re- 
gards the first great law. God, then, is pleased to sancti- 
fy individual minds and act and speak through them, pro- 
ducing by the influence of creatures on creatures a new 
series of effects. To do this is God's great delight. He 
can train and form individual minds exactly to his will, 
and then utter all his heart by them. This is not true of 
corporations ; there is in them no unity of character. 
All great revolutions God has produced by the power of 
individual minds, urging others towards God, holding i:ip 
32* 



378 



THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED. 



elevated principles, and yet leaving men free. Yea, it is 
the instinctive tendency of all such minds to throw men 
off from themselves upon God. If any fall down to wor- 
ship, they say with the angel, " See thou do it not. I am 
thy fellow-servant. Worship God.'' 

Lastly. God acts indirectly through organization, 
through the family, schools, churches, and civil govern- 
ments. But the firfft duty of all such organizations is, not 
to rise above God's first law and rights, but to regard 
and defend them against all invasion. Of civil govern- 
ments, the ends are, to prescribe the established modes of 
organic action and to regulate and defend rights. Their 
great effort should be to remove the disposition to do 
wrong, to increase individual knowledge and the power 
of self-government, and to throw as much responsibility 
on individuals, families, and towns as they can, and thus 
reduce the work of the higher class of rulers to the 
smallest possible extent. Thus, as the individuals, fami- 
lies, and towns become a law unto themselves, will the 
general government be more and more simple and less 
and less expensive. Reject, too, the idea that any organi- 
zation has been established for the honor, glory, or emol- 
ument of those who use it, or that God has any interest 
in having it so. The highest honor that God can receive 
is to give constant force to the first great direct law of 
concurrpnt action between him and the soul ; for it is 
the true glory of God, by a direct and omnipresent yet 
invisible influence on all men, to reduce the world to such 
order that all human governments will become so simple 
that men will scarcely feel their existence, and only use 
them as necessary guides and rules of organic action. 
Hence the idea that the glory of God can be promoted 
by exalting the glory of a given external organization is 
false and absurd. 



THE FIEE OF GOD. 



379 



The glory of God consists in the universal instruction, 
sanctification, and exaltation of the individuals of the hu- 
man race to the highest degree, and in the government of 
them by his invisible but sweet and blessed power, and 
then arranging them in those simple and free organiza- 
tions into which men would naturally fall who are thus 
filled with the fulness of God. 



THE GLORY OF AMERICAN INSTITUTIONS. 

This is the true view of the principles of organization ; 
and it is the grand peculiarity of ours, first of all on 
earth, that they are based on the principle of defending 
to the utmost the rights of God in the human soul and 
of the human soul in God. And, if properly used, they 
can secure the perfect results of which I have spoken. 

De Tocqueville noticed with admiration the extent to 
which in our institutions the responsibilities of govern- 
ment were thrown upon the townships, families, and indi- 
viduals, and thus withdrawn from the care of the state 
and national governments. Increase this tendency; defend 
the rights of God in individuals and the rights of indi- 
viduals in God ; give new power to the direct relationship 
between God and the soul; and, as the power of the invis- 
ible government of God increases, the cares and respon- 
sibilities of the state and national governments will be- 
come less. Every thing in our organizations will be sim- 
plified ; men will be free as the air that they breathe ; and, 
over all, and in all, and through all, the invisible but om- 
nipresent God will be for a glory and for a defence. 

This is not the infidel or transcendental millennium ; it 
is the true Protestant, scriptural view. It is based on the 
great original law of immediate personal union between 



380 THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED. 

individual souls and God, and a reliance on the power and 
willingness of God to regenerate the individual members 
of the community by the truth, and thus restore fallen and 
depraved man to that law, and a system of universal ' 
education designed to qualify every individual for self- 
government under the influence of a divine faith in God, 
which satisfies the highest affections of the mind in him, 
keeps the intellect and moral powers in health and in de- 
lightful harmony with all truth, removes all doubt by a 
delightful certainty, and makes all organizations the 
servants, and not the masters, of the soul. This is the 
glorious result foreseen by Isaiah when he says, " Thy sun 
shall no more go down nor thy moon withdraw itself ; for 
the Lord shall be thine everlasting light and thy God thy 
glory." 

JUDGMENT OF POPERY BY THIS STANDARD. 

And now we have before us a standard of judgment. 
This is the state towards which all true views of God and 
man tend. By it let us proceed to test the Papal corpora- 
tion. What are its principles ? To what does it tend ? 
I answer, in a word, To expel from the world all rights of 
open, free, direct, individual intercourse with God ; to 
repeal and tread under foot the fundamental law of the 
universe of created minds ; to expel God from the world 
as its present Ruler and Governor ; to put the Papal corpo- 
ration in his place, and to make the work of glorifying and 
exalting this corporation more important than holiness 
itself and the great duty of man, so that in efi'ect it shall 
be the only ruling god of this world ; to arrest entirely 
the healing, illuminating, and regenerating influence of the 
divine mind ; to destroy the power of intelligent self- 
government ; to corrupt all of the organizations of society; 



THE FIRE OF GOD. 



381 



and to sink the whole world into the deep abyss of a polluted, 
extorting, extravagant, centralized, spiritual despotism. It 
is the most perfect device the devil ever contrived for 
utterly destroying the appropriate influences of Christianity 
on the human mind and human society. To do this, it first 
invents the truly diabolical dogma of a mysterious, invisi- 
ble, unintelligible something which it calls grace, and 
which is transmitted to the soul, not by instruction, nor by 
any truth perceived and felt, nor by any intelligent action 
of the intellect and emotions, but by external, material 
means called sacraments. This above all other things is 
an exquisite device of the devil to destroy the importance 
of instruction, and intelligent, personal communion with 
God ; it is the master key to the dungeon of spiritual 
despotism ; for, the moment you make external, material 
sacraments the channel of what is called grace instead of 
instruction and a clear perception of the truth, and then 
give to the Romish corporation the sole right to administer 
these sacraments, you have darkened and enslaved the 
world. The importance of study, preaching, thought is 
destroyed. A dead language is as good as any other as a 
medium of worship. A cloud is drawn over God and the 
glories of his throne ; all direct access to him for life is 
cut off ; and men lie trembling at the feet of those who, by 
refusing the sacraments, can exclude them from heaven 
and consign them to hell. The power over the sacraments, 
on this view, is the possession of the keys of heaven and 
hell ; and it involves the virtual destruction of all need of 
preaching or of thought. 

2. This corporation has corrupted all ideas of saving 
faith by designedly shaking confidence in the Bible as a 
revelation intelligible to the common mind and sufficient for 
salvation through faith in Christ. It has even taken part 
with infidels in their assaults on the written Scriptures, to 



382 THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED. 

create the necessity of aid from an infallible corporation, 
with the design of making saving faith to, mean, in fact, an 
implicit belief in just what they say, instead of a penitent 
reliance on the atonement of Christ for salvation, by which 
the soul is reunited directly to God and the affections and 
will harmonized with those of God. The design is to cut 
man off from God and from the Bible and to destroy all 
standards of appeal above and beyond themselves, making 
the Bible merely their creature and tool, and its meaning 
just what suits them best. They tell us the Bible is a dead 
book and needs a living interpreter. Do not all human 
lawgivers say they establish judges to interpret human 
laws ? But the cases are unlike. Men make human laws 
and can unmake them, and their penalties are limited to 
this world. Men also can remove judges if they interpret 
wrongfully. God makes a revelation ; and, when made, 
not all the earth can alter it; and its penalties are beyond 
this world and eternal. He, therefore, who has the exclu- 
sive divine power to interpret a divine, immutable revela- 
tion, has in full all of the powers of the Deity centred in 
him ; nor can the whole world judge or remove him. He 
is the acting god of this world. His word is law : the 
Bible is nothing. The system is in theory and practice an 
annihilation of God and of the Bible, and an enthronement 
of the pope or the Papal corporation in place of God ; 
and all that the pope has ever claimed, all that his highest 
flatterers ever gave him, to reign as the only god on 
earth, is the legitimate result of the system either for him 
or for his corporation. Thus does this corporation repeal 
the first great law of God, destroy the rights of God in 
the human soul and the rights of the human soul in God, 
and concentrate in itself all of the prerogatives of God. 

3. The Papal corporation exalts the importance of a 
mere organization above the importance of holiness. It 



THE FIRE OP GOD. 



383 



makes an alleged means of more importance to God than 
the great end of all means ; that is, personal union to God 
in holiness and truth. It has acted on and established the 
principle that the Papal corporation is so important that 
no amount of sin in its head, or members, or servants can 
vacate its charter. If the pope is the veriest moral 
monster ever seen oji earth ; if the bishops are a gang of 
debauchees and swindlers ; if the priests are all fornicators, 
adulterers, and seducers, — it is no sufficient reason for 
abandoning the system. If the rights of the corporation 
ARE GiYEN UP OR DESTROYEiJ, then the gatcs of hell pre- 
vail against the church. But if every vestige of holiness 
ceases in the popes for centuries, — if bishops and priests are 
for centuries sunk in the slough of sensuality and pollution, 
and become the chief corrupters of the human race, — still, 
IP THE corporation ONLY KEEPS ITS POWER, then the gates 
or hell do not prevail ; then the church is safe. What 
higher blasphemy of God, what higher contempt of holi- 
ness, is possible than is involved in these principles? And 
yet they are the real and only practical principles of the 
Eomish corporation ; and they have acted them out for 
ages. 

If any amount of the vilest sins that the mind of man 
can conceive, in popes, bishops, and priests, could vacate the 
claims of a corporation, long since those of Rome had 
been vacated. The records of the world may be searched 
in vain for such depths of moral pollution and degradation 
as are found in the history of this corporation, not as rare 
exceptions for long centuries, but as the general law. 
The hierarchy and the priesthood of Eome have, as a 
general fact, been the great central channel of the pollu- 
tions of the Romish world, an insult to God, a scandal to 
humanity. Nor need wo wonder. The system is skilfully 
framed, according to all the laws of the human mind, to 



884 



THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED. 



produce these results. It is by its structure the hotbed 
of ambition, pride, the love of money and of power. The 
great law of the compulsory celibacy of the clergy, together 
with the established practice of appointing unmarried ec- 
clesiastics to examine females in the confessional on all 
points on which a polluted mind can form a conception, is 
as perfect a system for debauching the clergy as Satan 
could devise ; and, when not checked by Protestantism, it 
has been terribly, inconceivably effectual. The sober facts 
of history are too shameful to state. They are so enor- 
mous as to defy belief till the philosophy of the system is 
studied from which they spring. And yet the system is 
skilfully constructed to sustain and survive all this. That 
Satanic idea of grace, where there is neither Christian 
instruction nor Christian example, grace through material 
sacraments, and in spite of a polluted corporation, removes 
the whole difficulty. It gives to Satan his highest result. 
It enables him to establish on earth, in the name of God, 
a corporate body, with an irrevocable charter, which no ' 
amount of sin can forfeit. 

Let the pope be or do what he may. He may be (and 
I am now referring to actual facts) an atheist ; he may be 
perjured before God and man ; he may be a poisoner and 
an assassin ; he may be a drunkard ; he may be an infidel, 
a blasphemer, an adulterer ; he may sacrifice to Yenus 
and to the devil ; he may commit incest with his own ille- 
gitimate daughter ; he may debauch by violence ^all the 
females who come to Rome on whom he can lay his 
hands ; the majority of the popes for long, dark ages 
may give no evidence of piety, and clear proof that, they 
are the firstborn of Satan. It makes no odds. Rome is 
still the centre of unity for the whole Christian world. 
The pope in his bulls, speaking ex cathedra, is still the 
father of all Romanists and the voice of Gx)d to them. 



THE FIRE OF GOD. 



385 



The system still stands. Apostolic grace still descends 
through the great filthy central channel. 

So, too, the bishops assembled in council may be igno- 
rant, polluted, and sunk in the slough of all filth. They 
may so debauch the place in which they meet as to make 
it one vast house of ill fame, as Matthew Paris, a contem- 
porary historian, states that Cardinal Hugo in his closing 
speech after the council of Lyons declared to be a fact 
as regarded that place ; they may discuss doctrines in the 
midst of throngs of prostitutes gathered for their recep- 
tion, as was the case in the council of Constance, accord- 
ing to Dachery, Bruys, and the Vienna manuscript ; 
their character may be like that of the council of Con- 
stance drawn by Baptiza, one of its own members, " actu^ 
ated only by malice, iniquity, pride, vanity, ignorance, 
lasciviousness, avarice, pomp, simony, and dissimulation." 
Still such men are authorized to call themselves a holy 
council, assembled in the Holy Ghost to interpret infal- 
libly the word of God and to commit all contumacious 
rebels against their authority to the flames. God, it 
seems, has given an irrevocable charter to such councils 
to preserve in its purity the Christian faith. And so 
firm is this charter that no conceivable amount of sin 
can vacate it. 

So, too, the whole clergy may be, in the language of St. 
Bernard, " pastors in name, but in reality plunderers ; 
who, unsatisfied with the fleece, thirst for the blood of the 
flock, and merit the appellation of traitors ; who do not 
feed, but slay and devour, the sheep ; who melt in the fur- 
nace of covetousness, and dare for gain to barter assas- 
sination, adultery, incest, fornication, sacrilege, and per- 
jury." And yet it makes no odds. The system has a 
charter from God. No amount of sin can repeal it. 

The time from the tenth to the sixteenth century is- the 
33 



386 



THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED. 



time of the most full and perfect development of the sys- 
tem of the Papal corporation ; and during this time, accord- 
ing to their own historians, the Papal world, clergy and 
laity, were, as a general fact, sunk in the lowest depth of 
moral pollution. 

Sabellicus, Stella, Baronius, Giannone, Dupin, William 
of Paris, Spondanus, Morlaix, Honorius, St. Bernard, John 
of Salisbury, Alliaco, Petrarch, Dante, Marianna, JEgid- 
ius, Mirandula, Fordun, Gerson, Madruccio, Cervino, 
Pole, Monte, Sarpi, and others may be summoned to estab- 
lish these assertions by an amount of testimony and in 
a fervor and eloquence of language in comparison with 
which all I have said or can say would be weak and pow- 
erless. 

They deemed these results, indeed, abuses of the true 
system, and called aloud for reform. But they were no 
abuses ; they were its genuine legitimate results. The 
system is exquisitely adapted by satanic skill utterly , 
to corrupt those whose example and influence must 
have chief power, and by them to debauch and ruin the 
world. Hence, the nearer you come to the centre of the 
system, the deeper in all ages has been the moral degra- 
dation. 

Now, suppose in the days of Christ it had been said to 
Satan, God's great law of influencing men by a holy ex- 
ample is now developed in full power in Christ and in 
Paul and the apostles ; there are free churches, and God 
is open to all ; you are in imminent danger of ruin ; what 
will you do ? and suppose he had said, I will by forgeries 
concentrate all these free churches under one head ; I will 
cut off all men from the right of direct access to God with- 
out him and his corporation ; I will make him, when 
fully developed, the image of the devil, and debase the 
corporation to the lowest depths of pollution ; and yet I 



THE FIRE OF GOD, 



387 



will give them an irrepealable charter from God to be 
the only channels of life to the world, — would it nbt have 
seemed incredible even to hell itself that such a work 
could be done ? Yet it has been done ; and Mr. Brownson 
has the audacity to present this system to us as the only 
road to heaven and the only defence of our free institu- 
tions from ruin. 

4. Let us, then, finally look at the influence of this sys- 
tem on civil organizations. Let such a power, then, exist 
and develop itself, and gain full control over the people, 
and it will surely overrule, and subdue, and corrupt all 
the civil authorities of our country — nay, of the world. 
The central theocracy will control the people by the fears 
of hell and the hope of heaven, and in a conflict with 
rulers will undermine them, if they dare to resist, by turn- 
ing the people against them, as they did in the middle 
ages. Again : the central theocracy will divide the civil 
powers and subdue them one by one, rallying the obedi- 
ent against the refractory, as it did in the case of John 
of England. If he had not submitted, his kingdom would 
have been given to the King of France. And so long as 
the sphere of every civil power is local, while the theoc- 
racy is universal and holds the people by the hopes and 
fears of eternity, any civil power can be overruled and 
crushed. 

I need not say that the system has no tendency to 
sanctify and educate the masses, and make individuals 
independent thinkers, and to throw them upon God for 
life, light, and government : this course would be inev- 
itable death to the system. Its managers well know it, 
and hate and fear such a course as they do the plague. 
"What they desire is, not a people so holy, so elevated as 
individuals, so intelligent, so given to reading, thought, 
an^d prayer, and so fixed in truth by direct faith in God 



•388 



THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED. 



and life in liim that he, and he only, is their real and con- 
stant rule, but implicit, unquestioning faith in themselves 
and uiithinking obedience to their decrees. Never did 
they make deliberate efforts to give an elevating educa- 
tion to the mass of the people — never will they. It is 
death to the system to do it. 

Nor does the system tend in its ultimate results to 
simplify organization and reduce the expenses of govern- 
ment. By its own spirit and example it fosters the love 
of worldly pomp and authority and of extravagant cen- 
tralized aristocratic systems. It will be, as it always has 
been, the great corrupter of all earthly governments, by 
sanctioning in the name of God all the sins and abuses 
to which they are most prone. Think what a centraliza- 
tion of government would be effected if all the religious 
interests of a hierarchy, governing Europe, Asia, Africa, 
North and South America, and the islands of the sea, were 
centralized at Rome I What trains of legates, what a 
eomplicated machinery of ecclesiastical rulers, for the 
whole globe ! What imagination can penetrate the infi- 
nite details, the boundless extravagance and extortion, of 
such a system? And with such examples before their 
eyes, will secular rulers, in their civil relations, learn to 
be simple, humble, and unassuming? And will society 
ever be regulated simply by the spiritual presence of an 
invisible God, as an unsetting sun ? Never ; no, never. 

Finally. It is not possible for the human mind to 
conceive of a more perfect antagonist to God and to his 
system and to our institutions than exists in the system 
of the Papal corporation. It meets and conflicts with 
them at every point with deadly hatred. In one system 
is developed the full soul of Satan, in the other of God ; 
and it is the final collision of these systems and their 
advocates that is near at hand. So sure as there is a 



CHAPTER III. 



PROTESTANTISM DEFENDED. 

If Romanism is in its very essence, as has been proved, 
a fraudulent, perfidious, and treacherous conspiracy 
against all of the rights of humanity ; if its tendencies 
and results prove it to be the immitigable enemy of man- 
kind in all their interests, pecuniary, social, civil, and 
religious ; if its lofty, arrogant, and impious claims are 
based upon mere imposture ; if it was originated and 
perfected only through a series of the most stupendous 
frauds and forgeries, in comparison with which the forge- 
ries of Mormonism are completely thrown into the shade : 
if it has always rendered its clergy, as a body, debauched, 
licentious, and profligate, so that the open though corrupt 
polygamy of Mormonism is no worse, or rather is much 
better, than their atrocious and widespread seductions — 
only a very small part of which has ever come to light, 
though even that small part is enough to fill the world 
with their infamy ; if, when in power, they have remorse- 
lessly butchered whole Christian communities, whose only 
crime was that they preferred the truth and purity of 
God to the impositions and to the pollutions of Rome ; 
if it is an essential part of the system (avowed, estab- 
lished, and practised by councils, popes, and Jesuits) to lie, 
to swear falsely, and to practise perjury for the destruc- 
tion of all heretics : if the system is the most perfect 

(391) 



392 



THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED. 



incarnation of all villany, diabolism, and profligacy ever 
known on earth ; if the conscientious treachery and 
stranglings of the Thugs of India, in the service of their 
malign divinity, are altogether eclipsed by the conscien- 
tious treachery and butcheries, burnings and tortures, of 
Romish popes, bishops, priests, and inquisitors ; if all this 
and more is true, (and that it is true has been shown, not 
by declamation, but by a simple statement of only a part 
of the multitudinous facts of history — facts open, noto- 
rious, uncontrovertible — facts that blaze from the pages 
of history like the sun at noonday,) — then no more need 
be said to justify the existence of Protestantism and to 
vindicate its godlike character an d^ divine origin. It is 
enough to say that it is the protest of God, through the 
Bible and through humanity, against a system of such 
atrocity and blasphemy. 

To decide this whole great controversy, nothing is 
needed but a simple historical statement of what Popery 
is and has done. Moreover, if the European and Ameri- 
can world do not mean to have this infernal system 
astride their necks forever, like the old man of the moun- 
tains upon the neck of Sinbad the sailor ; if, in the elo- 
quent words of Gonelly, they do not mean to have Rome 
weigh down upon their dearest hopes and most sacred 
interests " like an eternal nightmare ; " if they do not 
wish to have the integrity and morals of the globe para- 
lyzed and palsied by those satanic conspirators, male and 
female, whom Rome trains up and sends forth under the 
name of Jesuits to corrupt the nations, — then the system, 
the whole system, must be radically and eternally de- 
stroyed. It has kept no terms with humanity ; humanity 
should keep no terms with it. It has kept no terms with 
God ; and God will assuredly keep no terms with it. It 
has impiously usurped his place on earth. All common 



THE FIRE OF GOD. 



389 



God, the result cannot be doubtful. The Papal corpora- 
tion and its allies shall be cast alive into the lake of fire. 

We are to judge of the real end of a system by regard- 
ing, not what it professes, but what it is adapted to do 
and what in fact it has done. 

If a set of men were among us from Russia, building 
massive stone buildings, forging chains, putting in grated 
windows, fitting up dark cells, and surrounding them with 
walls, and should all the time profess to be merely erect- 
ing colleges ; then putting up strong stone edifices on 
commanding points, with portholes, and trenches, and 
covered ways, calling them barns for cattle, and then fill- 
ing other buildings with muskets, and powder, and shot, 
and calling them hunting establishments ; and if, in the 
whole empire of Russia, there was talk of colonies to 
America, of oflBcers and students for the colleges, and of 
farmers to take care of these barns, and of hunters to use 
these guns, — do you think that this thin veil of words would 
hide the real nature of the system that was in preparation ? 
Would not the sagacious say. These are fine words indeed; 
but this looks far more like war, and subjugation, and 
prisons, than like colleges, and barns, and hunting ? 

Even so it is with this system. It calls itself, boastfully, 
the only holy church. Its avowed ends are to produce 
faith, and thus to save souls ; to restore men to God, to 
disclose his relations, to lead them to keep his laws. But, 
judged by i|;s structure, its real and only end is to aggran- 
dize a set of ecclesiastics at the expense of God and the 
human race. 

It is precisely adapted to enable a set of the most un- 
principled men whom the world ever saw to make use 
of the name of God and of the eternal sanctions of his 
government as the basis of a system the great end of 
which is to subjugate the human race to themselves, and 
33* 



390 



THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED. 



to make them the abject instruments for the promotion of 
their own honor, power, and wealth at the expense of all 
holiness and truth. 

Strip off the hypocritical garb of religious names, re- 
move the disgusting cant about the holiness of this cor- 
poration, which the history of all ages contradicts, and 
the system is simply what God in his own terrific language 
has declared it to be — the habitation of devils, the hold of 
every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful 
bird. 

And the single question is. Shall God rule the world 
by a holy church ? or the devil, through this mother of har- 
lots and of abominations ? Of this question who can doubt 
the issue? The systems are fast coming into their last 
collision ; and, when the time comes, one final, sudden blow 
from God shall smite the brain of the system, and its con- 
vulsive dying agonies shall be felt in every land as a voice 
from the throne shall proclaim. It is done ! This work be- 
longs to God alone ; it is his last and greatest work be- 
fore he reigns on earth. To him, then, let the eyes of the 
church be directed in earnest, fervent prayer till he comes. 



PBOTESTAXTISM DEFENDED. 



39a 



blasphemy disappears and is forgotten in comparison 
with the blasphemy of the popes and their insensate 
worshippers. They have not only claimed power as God, 
but above God and against God ; and let the nations be 
assured that he will not hold them guiltless forever. 
The day of his judgment hastens ; it is at hand. 

Yes, humanity shall at length be released from this 
widespread and long-enduring curse. Yes, it shall come 
to pass that the Lord shall give the nations rest from 
their sorrow, and from their fear, and from their hard 
bondage wherein they have been made to serve. Then 
shall they take up this proverb against the King of Baby- 
Jon and say. How hath the oppressor ceased, the golden 
^ city ceased ! The Lord hath broken the staff of the 
wicked, the sceptre of the rulers. He who smote the 
people in wrath with a continual stroke, he that ruled the 
nations in anger, is persecuted, and none hindereth. The 
whole earth is at rest and is quiet ; they break forth into 
singing. Hell from beneath is moved to receive her 
own once more and lament over his fall. Then shall it 
be said alike in heaven and on earth. How art thou fallen 
from heaven, Lucifer, son of the morning ! How art 
thou cut down to the ground that didst weaken the na- 
tions ! For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend 
into heaven ; I will exalt my throne above the stars of 
God ; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds ; I 
will be like the Most High. Yet thou shalt be brought 
down to hell, to the sides of the pit. They that see thee 
shall narrowly look upon thee and consider thee, saying, 
Is this the man that made the earth to tremble, that did 
shake kingdoms ? For I will rise up against him, saith 
the Lord, and will cut off from Babylon name and rem- 
nant, and son and nephew ; and I will sweep it with the 
besom of destruction, saith the Lord. The Lord of 



394 THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED. 



hosts hatli sworn, saying, Surely as I have thought so 
shall it come to pass ; and as I have purposed, so shall it 
stand. For the Lord of hosts hath purposed; and who 
shall disannul it ? And his hand is stretched out ; and 
who shall turn it back ? 

We should take our views upon this subject from the 
word of God. The destiny of the Eomish corporation, 
as there foretold, is not reformation, but destruction. It 
is to be utterly burned with fire ; because God, the aven- 
ging Judge, is almighty. How sublime is yet another 
symbol, by which inspiration foretells this her final 
doom : " A mighty angel took up a stone, like a great 
millstone, and cast it into the sea, saying. Thus with vio- 
lence shall that great city Babylon be thrown down, and 
shall be found no more at all"!^ How fearfully signifi- 
cant the reasons assigned for this doom : " By her sor- 
ceries were all nations deceived ; with her the kings of the 
earth have committed fornication ; and the inhabitants 
of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her 
fornication. She has been drunken with the blood of the 
saints and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus ; and in 
her is found the blood of prophets, and of saints, and of 
all that were slain on the earth " ! 

Hence we need not wonder that in heaven the spirits 
of martyred saints are called on to exult over her doom. 
Rejoice over her, thou heaven, and ye holy apostles and 
prophets ; for God hath avenged you on her. We need not 
wonder that with loud acclaim they respond to this appeal, 
saying, " Alleluia : salvation, and glory, and honor, and pow- 
er unto the Lord our God ; for true and righteous are his 
judgments ; for he hath judged the great whore which did 
corrupt the earth with her fornication, and hath avenged the 
blood of his servants at her hand. And again they said, 
Alleluia ; and her smoke rose up forever and ever." 



PEOTESTANTISM DEFENDED. 



395 



From God's point of vision we can now see what Prot- 
estantism is. It is the beginning of that great work that 
shall issue in this glorious redemption of the human race 
from the bondage of hell, and that shall inaugurate the 
final reign of God in righteousness and truth. The pro- 
cess is simple. The- same divine energy that shall so in- 
vigorate the church that she can abhor the worldliness 
and the pollutions of Babylon shall make her so heavenly 
minded and pure that she shall be free from all fanaticism, 
all malignity, all revenge, all diseased emotions, and there- 
fore in the highest possible degree capable of a divine 
boldness and unmitigated hatred of sin, such as the de- 
struction of a system of wickedness so gigantic demands. 
In that system is concentrated the highest energy, the 
whole energy, of Satan. " He gave to it his power, and 
his seat, and great authority.^' When it is destroyed, his 
fate is decided. The conflict with that system is the 
"Waterloo conflict of the globe. 

Immediately after its decision Satan shall be bound and 
shut up, not in Elba, nor in St. Helena, but in the bottom- 
less pit. 

It is the custom of Romanists to scoff at Protestantism 
because, as yet, it has not completed its work, and has re- 
vealed many imperfections and defects. This is only an- 
other illustration of the unparalleled impudence of that 
system. It had so corrupted society that it has required 
centuries to purge out its corruptions. It had so in- 
wrought the belief of the necessity of some visible head 
to the church on earth into the nations — as if God were 
entirely incompetent to take care of his church — that 
when the churches of Europe revolted from the pope they 
made kings and emperors their heads. And how could 
the church become pure enough to contend with a concen- 
trated system of worldliness and iniquity, so long as she 



396 



THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED. 



was not a free chnrch, depending upon her true and only 
head for her ministry and for her support ? 

So, too, the dogmatic despotism that has sometimes dis- 
graced and enfeebled Protestantism was but a lesson 
learned in her school, and not yet unlearned. 

The extent to which she debased the conceptions of 
Christendom concerning God, heaven, and hell, and all 
the doctrines of theology, is not even yet fully understood. 
She retained these doctrines in form, but changed God into 
an infinite and almighty demon, delighting in treachery 
and carnage. Her conceptions of heaven, and especially 
of hell, were sensual, material, i)rutal. A large portion 
of Christendom has not yet recovered from the supersti- 
tious terrors with which she has frozen their minds by her 
profane threats of the wrath of the almighty fiend of 
whom she conceived in the place of a pure and holy God 
of love. 

Nevertheless, the church of Protestantism has century 
by century worked her way out of the infinite slough of 
pollution into which all things had been cast by the Ro- 
mish harlot ; and the time is near at hand when it shall be 
given unto her to put on fine linen, clean and white — even 
the righteousness of the saints. Then, at length, shall the 
marriage supper of the Lamb come, even on earth. Then 
shall the nations know the difference between the harlot 
of Rome, in her meretricious purple and scarlet attire, and 
the bride, the Lamb's wife, in her fine linen, clean and 
white, in which she shall be publicly owned and acknowl- 
edged by her royal and divine Head. 

Nor have the results of Protestantism even thus far been 
small. It has affected the public sentiment of Christen- 
dom, and even of Rome herself. Rome is not as atheistic 
and profligate as she was before the reformation : she is 
bad enough ; but she is at least outwardly a little more 



PROTESTANTISM DEFENDED. 



397 



decent than she once was ; and in all Protestant coun- 
tries some of her clergy are in fact better, and all regard 
appearances a little more than they once did. Let no one, 
however, be simple enough to think that Rome, or her 
clergy, or her monasteries, or nunneries are yet pure. Be- 
yond all doubt, as Gavazzi declares, the abomination of 
desolations still reigns within. 

But the pope's most audacious temporal aggressions have 
been checked and terminated. Kings are not, as once, his 
vassals ; they do not hold his stirrups ; he does not put 
his foot upon their necks. 

The pecuniary traffic of the great corporation, too, has 
to a vast extent been destroyed. True it is that she still 
deludes and swindles hundreds of millions, but not to the 
extent that she once did. 

Protestantism, also, has produced communities in which 
families are safe from the profane intrusion of licentious 
priests into all the secrets of social life by the confessional 
— communities intelligent, and educated, and with a mo- 
rality so elevated that the pollutions of Popery seem in- 
conceivable and incredible. 

Protestantism has opened the Bible, and made God, 
through it, the Sun of the moral world, instead of his en- 
emy the pope. It has established systems of popular ed- 
ucation, which Rome fears in this land more than any 
thing except the Bible. It has produced industry, intelli- 
gence, enterprise, thrift, and a striking development of na- 
tional resources wherever it has been permitted thorough- 
ly to unfetter the human mind. 

And last of all, Protestantism, through the Bible, has 
made this great nation, in which, for the first time, the 
great principles of civil and religious liberty have been 
developed on a scale adequate to the wants of humanity. 
The power of these principles, too, is felt and feared even 
34 



398 THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED. 

now in Papal lands ; and therefore Bishop Hughes, of New 
York, saw fit to scoff at them as they were imbodied in the 
proceedings of the great meeting in behalf of the Madiai, 
and to slander the victims of the persecution of Rome, and 
all who sympathized with them, in his infamous letter, the 
atrocious principles and falsehoods of which have been so 
ably exposed by Dr. Baird and other Americans, who are 
not ignorant of the abominations of Romish doctrines and 
morals. Among the replies of such, I am glad to be able 
to make honorable mention of the speech of General Cass 
in the Senate of the United States. 



CHAPTER lY. 



THE TRUE POSITION OF THE ROMISH BISHOPS RESIDENT 
IN AMERICA. 

It will be observed that I have not unfrequentlj used 
an uncommon form of speech in speaking of the bishops 
of the Romish church in this country. I do not speak of 
them as American citizens, or as American bishops, but as 
bishops of Rome sojourning here. 

This language is not without intended significance. I 
do not regard them as in any sense American citizens in 
heart, whatever they may be in profession. 

My reason is this : They are part and parcel of a great 
conspiracy which now exists to subvert the most important 
and fundamental principles of the constitution of these 
United States and of every particular state in this Union. 
I do not make this charge heedlessly, but wittingly, and 
with a full understanding of its import. Nor shall I leave 
it unsustained by ample proof ; "for, if there is one prin- 
ciple of our national and state constitutions more funda- 
mental than another, it is the great principle of religious 
liberty. 

Now, of this principle the pope has in every variety of 
form declared himself the implacable enemy. When the 
Christian Alliance was' formed to extend the principles of 
religious liberty into all lands, Pope Gregory XYI., in an 
encyclical letter to all patriarchs, primates, archbishops, 

(399) 



400 



THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED. 



and bishops, issued May 8, 1844, denounced and slandered 
with the utmost virulence the whole doctrine of religious 
liberty, as hostile to the very fundamental elements of the 
Papacy, as well as of civil despotisms in general. He 
slandered it under the name of " indifference in religion." 
The same pope also, in 1832, declared "that liberty of 
conscience is a most pestilential error," and " that unbridled 
liberty of opinion is that pest of all others most to be 
DREADED IN THE STATE." He also denounced " that worst 
and never to be sufficiently execrated and detested lib- 
erty OF the press." 

But why should any one be simple enough to wonder at 
all this ? Does any man like to see his own house set on 
fire ? Why, then, should the pope like any better to see 
Babylon the great reduced to ashes, and himself in it? 
The fact is, that the fundamental, constitutional principle of 
this nation is a rejection of the claims of Rome; and this has 
been in all ages regarded and treated as treason at Rome. 
The past history and present claims of that corporation 
cannot for a moment be sustained or defended on any 
other ground. On no other ground can they justify their 
inquisitions, and crusades, and massacres. 

The only wonder is that any man can be simple and 
thoughtless enough not to see that there is in fact, and 
from the necessity of the case, a death grapple between 
the two systems. There is no neutrality, no middle 
ground, between them. If one prevails, the other is ex- 
terminated. 

And are the Romish bishops in America at war with 
the pope ? Do they love what he hates and hate what he 
loves ? Are they engaged with all their might in build- 
ing up what he is laboring with all his might to throw 
down ? Do they heartily love that which he declares to 
be the worst of all evils — an evil never to be sufficient- 



POSITION OP ROMISH BISHOPS IN AMERICA. 401 



ly execrated and detested — eyen the liberty of the 
press ? 

Let it now be remembered that their code of morals, 
though it justifies perjury towards heretics, will not tol- 
erate perjury towards the pope. What, then, have they 
sworn to do in their peculiar and anti-republican feudal 
oath ? To say nothing of the oath to persecute and wage 
war with heretics, about which they make contemptible 
and jesuitical quibbles to cover up its obvious meaning, 
have they not sworn to obey the pope's mandates and de- 
crees ? And what is this but an oath to obey the most 
infamous persecuting enactments of the canon law ? 

According to their own principles, then, are they not 
guilty of treason to the constitution of these United 
States — treason not in any declamatory sense, but in 
strict and legal verity ? 

For if the claim of liberty of conscience was in the 
case of John Huss treason, as at war with the constitu- 
tion of Rome, if they burned him for it at the stake, and 
if they have slaughtered millions before and since for the 
same crime, then why is it not treason for the Romish 
bishops in America to conspire with the pope and foreign 
potentates to overthrow the fundamental principle of our 
national constitution ? 

Let us consider a few facts on this point. In the year 
1828, F. Schlegel, a Romanist, delivered in Vienna a 
course of lectures against Protestantism, and in favor of 
Popery, as adapted to sustain the existing civil despotisms 
of Europe. In those lectures he thus speaks of this coun- 
try : " The true nursery of all these destructive princi- 
ples, the revolutionary school for France and the rest 
of Europe, has been North America. Thence the evil has 
spread over many other lands, either by natural contagion 
or by arbitrary communication." Hereupon the St. Leo- 
34* 



402 



THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED. 



pold foundation was set on foot, for the purpose of sup- 
porting, in their own words, " the greater activity of Catho- 
lic missions in the United States^ This Schlegel was one 
of the Austrian cabinet, the confidential counsellor of 
Prince Metternich. This society was received under roy- 
al protection and sanctioned by the pope. It prepares in 
the seminary of Vienna, and supports a body of Jesuits 
who are pervading this country. The pope issued a bull 
promising full indulgence and remission of all their sins 
to those who should contribute to the society. This bull 
was made perpetual and sanctioned by the emperor. The 
tenth article provides that masses shall be said for the 
souls of all contributors after their death. 

Seven days after this bull, Prince Metternich wrote to 
the Bishop of Cincinnati, — who when in Austria had pub- 
lished a pamphlet on the state of the western country, 
which was one of the influences leading to the formation 
of the society, — stating the joy with which the emperor 
cooperated in the plan of the society. 

What have we here, then ? Is this any thing but a for- 
mal and avowed plot to subvert our institutions, in which 
the Romish Bishop of Cincinnati conspires with the pope 
and the Emperor of Austria ? 

Consider another fact. The society at Lyons, in France, 
from whose address to its patrons I have given an extract 
on page 17, insults the Protestant settlers of this coun- 
try, laments that Protestantism had gained the ascen- 
dency here, and declares that " the Catholic church could 
never abandon the invaded territory, and encourages the 
hope of its speedy recovery. For twenty-two years this 
society has been sending money to all the bishops of this 
nation. From their own reports, it appears that in the 
four years from 1839 to 1843 it sent the enormous sum of 
six hundred and twelve thousand six hundred and fifty- 



POSITION OF ROMISU BISHOPS IX AMEUICA. 403 

six dollars. This society, though a general missionary 
society, was formed with special reference to us, and has 
sent to us more money than to any other great division 
of the globe. 

Once more : the English Romanists formed an emigra- 
tion society designed to establish colonies of Romanists 
under their priests in the great North- Western States. 
Of this a full account is given by H. Norton in his Signs 
of Danger and of Promise, and in his Startling Facts, 
pp. 28-37. It is simply a consistent part of one great 
plan. On it Norton remarks, — 

" It may suffice to say that the policy of the society 
is to imbody the Papal population together in the west, 
remote from Protestant influence. It aims at throwing a 
majority into the great valley, and thus to control the des- 
tiny of the United States. 

" They are very confident of success, as appears by this 
document. The energy of hope is apparent on every 
page. Yes, they hope ; they confidently anticipate the day 
when the religion and the government of the United 
States will be Roman Catholic. 

" Hear this, ye Protestants who never dream of danger, 
who imagine that such a thought could have danced only 
in the brain of a lunatic ! Read attentively a few quota- 
tions from this pamphlet, written by a Roman Catholic 
gentleman : — 

" ' Judge Haliburton asserts that .all America will be a 
Catholic country.' ' The Roman Catholic church bids 
fair to rise to importance in America.' 

" ' They gain constantly ; they gain more by emigration, 
more by natural increase in proportion to their numbers, 
more by intermarriages, adoption, and conversion, than 
Protestants. With their exclusive views of salvation 
and peculiar tenets, as soon as they have the majority 
this becomes a Catholic country, with a Catholic govern- 
ment, with the Catholic religion 'established by law. Is 
this a great change ? A greater change has taken place 



404 



THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED. 



among the British, the Medes and Persians of Europe, the 
nolumus leges mutari people.' 

" Towards the close of this document is the following 
sentence in capitals : — 

" ' The codperation of other European nations in pro- 
moting the objects of the society is most desirable, par- 
ticularly of those possessing a redundant population — 
that is, Roman Catholic, &c.' 

" This observation is especially applicable to Belgium, 
France, and a large portion of Germany. They speak of 
those nations as follows : — 

" ' The western districts may be said to have a particu- 
lar claim to the patronage of France, as it was under 
their former sovereignty that their vast resources and fa- 
cility of connection between the northern lakes and the 
first navigable tributaries of the Mississippi were discov- 
ered by those enterprising and amiable French Jesuit 
missionaries, Henepin and La Salle. As to Belgium and 
Germany, it is almost needless to call on them for greater 
support than is already furnished by the mass of Catholic 
population daily flowing from these kingdoms into the 
fertile west. 

" ' In proof of this, St. Louis, risen up as it were but 
yesterday in the heart of this country, now boasts of 
more than thirty thousand inhabitants, twelve thousand 
of which are German, Belgian, French, and Irish Catho- 
lics, mainly attracted by the system of education afforded 
by the Belgian Jesuits, who have not only been the means 
of establishing a magnificent cathedral in this city, and 
also a college now classed so high in affording instruction, 
that, beyond the commendations universally bestowed on 
its internal arrangements, its rules may be almost said to 
hold out the best model for diffusing general knowledge 
through the west.' " 

Again : the Duke of Richmond, formerly governor of 
the Canadas, said in a speech at Montreal, " The govern- 
ment of the United States ought not to stand, and it will 
not stand ; but it will be destroyed by subversion, and not 
by conquest. The plan is this — to send over the surplus 



POSITION OF ROMISH BISHOPS IN AMERICA. 



405 



population of Europe. They will go over with foreign 
views and feelings, and will form a heterogeneous mass, 
and in the course of time will be prepared to rise and 
subvert the government.'' He then adds, " The church 
of Rome has a design upon that country. Popery will in 
time be the established religion, and will aid in the de- 
struction of that republic. I have conversed with many 
of the sovereigns and princes of Europe ; and they have 
unanimously expressed their opinions relative to the gov- 
ernment of the United States, and their determination to 
subvert it." (See Norton's Signs of Danger, p. 16.) 

In connection with these proceedings of foreign organ-' 
izations in cooperation with the Romish bishops in this 
country, note also the fact that the Catholic Telegraph, 
of Cincinnati, under the supervision and censorship of the 
bishop, openly published a condemnation of our American 
institutions, as " not of a nature to invite the reflecting 
part of the world." This was said in view of a single 
fact in a trial in Boston after the burning of the Charles- 
town nunnery. Concerning this he says, " This one fact is 
a condemnation of the system of American institutions, con- 
firmed lately by numerous other proofs.^^ 

Bishop England, a Jesuit, on his return from Europe 
said, in an address to his diocese, " In Paris and at Lyons 
I have conversed with those excellent men who manage 
the affairs bf the Association for propagating the Faith. 
I have also had opportunities of communication with some 
of the council which administers the Austrian Association. 
The Propaganda in Rome has this year contributed to our 
extraordinary expenditure, as has the holy father himself." 

A few years since th-e Association for propagating the 
Faith stated their conviction that within thirty years the 
Romanists would have the ascendency in this country. 

What would be the state of things in that contingency, 



406 



THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED. 



learn from tlie Shepherd of the Yalley, the organ of the 
Bishop of St. Louis : " The church is of necessity intol- 
erant. Heresy she endures when and where she must ; but 
she hates it, and directs all her energies to its destruction. 
If Catholics ever gain an immense numerical majority^ re- 
ligious freedom in this country is at an end. So our en- 
emies say; so we believe." — November 23, 1851. (See 
supra, p. 107.) 

The propriety of this course is thus defended by Mr. 
Brownson : " The liberty of heresy and unbelief is not a 
natural right. * * * All the rights the sects have, or 
can have, are derived from the state, and rest on expedi- 
ency. As they have in their character of sects, hostile to 
the true religion, (Popery,) no rights under the law of Na- 
ture or the law of God, they are neither wronged nor 
deprived of liberty if the state refuses to grant them any 
rights at all." — Brownson's Review, October, 1852, p. 456. 

Mr. Brownson says he writes nothing without the sanc- 
tion of his bishop ; and the Romish hierarchy in this coun- 
try indorse his work. Of course, as soon as the Romanists 
gain the majority, the rights of all Protestants will be at 
an end. 

Such is the conduct of these bishops towards what they 
treacherously call their country. Is this their idea of true 
allegiance ? Do they swear no other allegiance than this 
to the pope ? Mark well the words of their oath : " I will 
not be in any counsel, action, or treaty in which shall be 
plotted against our said lord and the said Romish church 
any thing to the hurt or prejudice of their persons, right, 
honor, state, or power ; and, if I shall know any such thing 
to be treated or agitated by any whatsoever, I will hinder 
it to my power, and as soon as I can will signify it to our 
said lord, or to some other by whom it may come to his 
knowledge." The interests of the malignant enemy of our 



POSITION OF ROMISH BISHOPS IN AMERICA. 407 

institutions tliey swear to regard as thus sacred. Against 
him they swear not to plot ; him they swear to warn of 
danger. 

But, when he with foreign despots leagues against us, 
they take sweet counsel together with them, receive their 
funds, and carry out their purposes. Nor is this all : they 
are sworn to go or to send a trusty messenger every third 
year to the centre of this great conspiracy, and to give a 
strict account of their fidelity in all their proceedings to 
their lord the pope. 

And now, if all this is not treason, what is ? But it may 
be asked. What will the Romish bishops say to this charge?^ 
That depends altogether upon their locality and audience. 
At Rome, Lyons, or Vienna, and before their fellow-con- 
spirators they will say, " It is true ; and we glory in it." 
Moreover they will sneer, and not without reason, at the 
simplicity of any among us who ever have been hood- 
winked by their old tricks of Romish perjury, in swearing 
mock oaths of allegiance to a government which is re* 
garded at Rome as guilty of treason and deserving of 
damnation, because Protestant and founded on the prin- 
ciples of religious liberty. Let no one say this is not 
charitable. True charity does not consist in stultifying 
ourselves and forswearing common sense. The very re- 
ligion of these men enjoins and canonizes fraud and per- 
jury towards heretics, and robbery and murder also, when 
they have the power : all history proves this. Will they, 
then, be better than their religion ? 

When, my countrymen, will you thoroughly under- 
stand and firmly believe that the Romish bishops among 
us mean to be faithful to their oath to the pope, and that 
fidelity to the pope and church of Rome is, of necessity, 
enmity and treachery to the highest interests of this 
nation? 



CHAPTER Y. 



APPEAL TO THE JUDGMENT OF GOD. 

I HAVE already appealed to every truehearted Amer- 
ican for a righteous judgment in the great case before us. 
It is with joy that I now turn to the judgment seat of 
God. I turn with joy, because he is not burdened, wearied, 
or depressed even by a cause so vast as this. When be- 
neath its magnitude my mind faintr] and fails, I turn with 
joy to him, the unfainting,the unfailing, the all-comprehend- 
ing, the omnipresent God, the Lord of all power and, might, 
glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders. 
Before his judgment seat I bow ; to him I present my 
cause for judgment. 

To him and to his holy angels I appeal that I have not 
sought or provoked this warfare with the Romish corpo- 
ration. To him I appeal that it has been with deep sor- 
row, and not with joy, that I have made the severe charges 
against them which stand upon my pages awaiting his 
/ judgment. Before him I confess that I am sacredly bound 
by the highest obligations of truth and justice in dealing 
with their characters, reputation, and interests. 

But I found them grossly assailing all that is most 
dear to myself, my friends, my country, and my God. 
What truehearted American does not love and revere the 
Pilgrim Fathers and all the other noble Protestant found- 
ers of this nation, to whose piety, toil, and blood we owe 

(408) 



APPEAL TO THE JUDGMENT OP GOD. 409 



all our present blessings ? Yet I found this corporation 
defaming these men as violent, restless heretics ; as the 
mere scum of sects and as the invaders of their terri- 
tory. What patriotic American does not love the insti- 
tutions of this country, based on religious freedom and 
consecrated to the glory of God and the welfare of man ? 
Yet I found them leagued with foreign despots for the 
subversion and destruction of these sacred institutions. 

Who does not love those pure and holy spirits who, for 
their love to God and to his word, have endured tortures 
lingering and unutterable in the dungeons of this corpo- 
ration, or have been suddenly and ruthlessly slain by their 
fierce crusaders, or burned in their funeral piles? God 
loves them, with whom they now are ; he has treasured up 
their tears ; he will make inquisition for their blood. Yet 
I found this corporation still defaming their character by 
atrocious slanders, justifying their murder, and exalting 
with honor the bloodstained authors of their death. 

Who does not regard with deep and tender interest the 
welfare of his children, and of their children, and of all 
the coming generations of this great country? Yet I 
found that bloody corporation straining every nerve to 
destroy those great and blood-bought principles that now 
defend us in the free and intelligent worship of God, and 
to prepare the way for endless proscriptions and slaugh- 
ters such as have covered their career in the old world 
with deep and endless infamy. 

Who does not love the free schools of this nation, con- 
secrated to God and to liberty, in which prayer daily as- 
cends and the word of God is read ? Yet I found this 
slanderous corporation assailing these as infidel and god- 
less schools, and rallying all their myrmidons for their 
destruction. 

Who does not love and revere the intelligent, benev- 

35 



410 



THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED. 



olent, energetic, pure Protestant Christians of this land, 
expending time, labor, and wealth in sustaining the in- 
stitutions ot religion and education, relieving human suffer- 
ing and want, elevating society, and sending forth the 
heralds of salvation to all climes ? Y«t I found this fero- 
cious and bloody corporation reviling them as pagans, 
and thus pouring scorn and contempt upon God himself 
by scoffing at and slandering some of the most glorious 
results of his regenerating grace. 

And, as if this were not enough, I found the same un- 
holy and licentious corporation arrogating to itself all the 
holiness of earth and an entire and irrevocable monopoly 
of the grace of God. 

Still more : I found this arrogant corporation stigma- 
tizing as persecution all attempts to repel such a murder- 
ous onset on all that man holds dear, and claiming, under 
the shield of our principles of religious liberty, the right 
to conspire and combine with the despots of the old world 
to destroy the very principles that gave them shelter and 
defence ; declaring that the children of the founders of 
these institutions, as heretics, have no rights, but that this 
same immaculate corporation has the entire monopoly of 
rights in this world, as well as of holiness and the grace 
of God. They claim that God has given to them the ab- 
solute and exclusive right to persecute, and that to restrain 
them from the free exercise of this right is persecution 
and an invasion of their inalienable rights. Moreover to 
write or to say any thing against them is impious slander, 
deserving the torments of the Inquisition and the stake ; 
for they, and they only, are infallible ; they fill the place 
of God on earth. 

Who, then, is the assailant? Who is the invader? Let 
God judge. No doubt he will judge. He knows that 
they have brought on the conflict and provoked the war. 

And now I well know that I am no match for the in- 



APPEAL TO THE JUDGMENT OF GOD. 411 

tensity of the wickedness of this widespread corporation. 
Xo human power is adequate for such a crisis. God alone 
is almighty ; he alone can meet it ; and to him I turn with 
exulting confidence and hope. 

Before him and . his holy angels and the hosts of the 
redeemed, as well as before men, I present those charges 
against this corporation, for which I am ready to give an 
account before the bar of my final Judge. I have not made 
these charges in the language of passion or exaggeration, 
but of sober conviction. 

I have declared, and do declare, that without the slight- 
est authority or pretext it has impiously arrogated to 
itself the place of God, and given the sanction of his 
holy name to deeds and principles which he abhors ; that 
its whole energy has been put forth to corrupt the prin- 
ciples and debauch the morals of mankind ; that it has 
been the great teacher of fraud, perfidy, perjury, and 
murder ; that it has deluged the nations with the blood 
of the saints ; that by its great engines of despotism, 
the confessional and the celibacy of the clergy, it has 
debauched the whole body of its ecclesiastics and rad- 
ically corrupted and enslaved human society ; that it is at 
war with all the interests of humanity ; that forgery and 
frauds of the most atrocious kind are the basis of its pow- 
er ; that therefore it cannot live except by the destruction 
of history and the Bible, and therefore it remorselessly 
wars upon both of them ; that those of the corporation 
who reside among us are engaged in a traitorous con- 
spiracy to resist the cause of God by the subversion of re- 
ligious liberty in this nation, and throughout the world, 
in order again to deluge the nations with blood. 

Before God I thus charge them ; and I put upon them 
the guilt of the blood of his martyred saints, and invoke 
him to hear their prayers for judgment and to destroy 
those who have so long destroyed the earth. 



CHAPTER VI. 



WHAT SHALL BE DONE? 

The very nature of this work reveals the fact that it 
was not written for purposes of theory, but for a practi- 
cal end. In every crisis the great question is, What shall 
be done ? 

To answer this question, I would say to my fellow-cit- 
izens, Consider first who you are, where you are, and what 
God expects of you. You are God's jurors, in behalf of 
your country and of humanity, in the great question now 
before the bar of God. You are in the age of light, and 
not in the dark ages of forgery and fraud ; not indeed, 
as yet, in the age of perfect light, but destined soon to 
become so. It is to be the age of true and impartial his- 
tory ; it is to be an historical day of judgment for the globe. 
God expects of you, therefore, a true judgment in view of 
the law and of the facts in the case. 

The law is obvious, alike by nature and by revelation. 
It is the great law of universal and reciprocal benevolence 
to God and to man. It is the law of truth, of honor, of 
justice, of love. It gives to God his rights in all men, and 
to all men their rights in God. 

Is it not plain, then, that the first great work to be done 
is to understand the facts of the case — to know certain- 
ly what this Papal corporation is — to know its origin, 
its principles, its laws, its history, its deeds — to strip off 

(412) 



WHAT SHALL BE DONE? 



413 



all its disguises, all its manifold robes of concealment, all 
its false pretences and religious cant, and to compel it to 
stand naked in the ligKt of God's own truth before his 
judgment bar? 

The next thing to be done is to demolish Popish de- 
fences derived from the doctrine of rights of conscience. 
The Romish bill of rights is, that their corporation has a 
divine right to follow a conscience that impels them to 
persecute and murder all who will not give up intellect, 
conscience, property, wives, and daughters to their godless 
ambition and lust. This theory is to be exposed to the 
abhorrence it deserves, as an arrogant and diabolical in- 
vasion of all the rights of God and man. 

We are also to expose those defenders of the Romish 
church who raise the cry of persecution against those who 
boldly reveal her crimes. Her bill of rights on this point 
is, that she has from God the exclusive right to persecute 
all over the globe all who refuse to obey her imperious 
mandates ; and, if any man dares to peep or mutter against 
her for her butcheries, that she is unjustly persecuted for 
righteousness' sake. Mr. Brownson is fast assuming this 
ground, and is very piously consoling the gentle popes that, 
like Christ, they are persecuted for righteousness' sake. 

On the other hand, the true and only way of destroying 
persecution from the globe is utterly to destroy that cor- 
poration which, as claiming infallibility, has enjoined per- 
secution against all heretics by unchangeable law ; which 
has repeatedly deluged in blood the nations of Europe by 
massacres the most atrocious and by the torments and fires 
of the Inquisition ; which still justifies these massacres, and 
declares her purpose to prepare the way for the repetition 
of them in this land upon our children, and children's 
children, and all coming generations. Whatever perse- 
cution is, it is not persecution to aim at the utter destruc- 
35* 



414 



THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED. 



tion of a corporation like this ; not, indeed, on the ac- 
cursed principles of that corporation by perjury and vio- 
lence, but by a public sentiment formed by God and the 
truth, so pure and powerful that it shall reduce it to ashes 
beneath the soles of our feet. 

If then these, the true principles of the case, were 
thoroughly understood, and if all American freemen were 
thoroughly acquainted with the real facts of the case, all 
^ else would follow of course. 

I say this because eighteen millions of free American 
Protestants can with perfect ease, if enlightened and full 
of moral energy, form a public sentiment, with the aid of 
God, that shall not only do the needed work for our coun- 
try, but also impart new energy to the friends of freedom 
in the old world. Eomanism, as ought to be known to 
all, is plotting, not only our downfall, but also that of 
Great Britain, and is confidently expecting both. But, if 
united, intelligent, bold, and energetic, we can with per- 
fect ease defend ourselves, aid our brethren in the old 
world in their struggles, and turn the tide of war to the 
gates of Rome. 

These views involve no hostility to the masses of the 
Romanists in this country or in the old world ; nay, they 
involve love and sympathy for them, and an earnest desire 
to destroy that corporation which is their worst enemy, and 
which is intent only on deluding, enslaving, and plunder- 
ing them. Mr. Brownson testifies that he found multi- 
tudes of Romanists in this country disposed to adopt and 
defend the true principles of religious liberty, and is now, 
with the pope, straining every nerve to prevent such a re- 
sult. We ought not, indeed, to confide political trusts even 
to liberal Romanists till they have renounced all allegiance 
to the persecuting despotism of Rome — a despotism which 
even now is ready to persecute them just as it persecutes 



WHAT SHALL BE DONE? 415 

Meagher for his love of true liberty. But we can treat 
all such with the utmost kindness, and do all in our power 
to hasten their emancipation. What the world needs is, 
that God should smite the Romish corporation itself on 
the brain with an omnipotent energy that shall at once 
destroy its life. When he shall at last do this, when the 
struggles of the monster shall be over and it shall be 
stretched out dead upon the plains, then will it be easy to 
break the chains of its captives and bid them go free ; 
then will shouts of triumph go up from an emancipated 
world. 

Whilst I thus place my main dependence upon the pow- 
er of God, acting through an enlightened and energetic 
public sentiment, I would not exclude the proper use of 
legislation. In particular, we ought to have such legisla- 
tion as shall render it impossible for the pope and his 
agents to accumulate real estate in this country, to the in- 
jury of the nation and the detriment of liberty. All na- 
tions, even the most Papal, have been compelled by the 
steady and persevering rapacity of the pope and his agents 
to defend themselves against him by law. The English 
statutes of mortmain were designed for this end. 

On this point Blackstone says, " Another engine set on 
foot, or at least greatly improved, by the court of Rome, 
was a masterpiece of Papal policy. Not content with the 
ample provision of tithes which the law of the land had 
given to the parochial clergy, they endeavored to grasp 
at all the lands and inheritances of the kingdom, and, 
had not the legislature withstood them, would by this time 
have probably been masters of every foot of ground in the 
kingdom^ He then details their ingenious and systematic 
contrivances to effect it and to evade the laws. All his 
discussion of this point deserves careful consideration at 
this time. And now, is it not time to ask, What right has 



41i) TdE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED. 

the pope to claim, through his pecuniary emissaries called 
bishops, the right to hold direct!}^ or indirectly all the 
church property of the Eomish denomination in this coun- 
try. This is not merely a question for the corporation of 
the St. Louis church in Buffalo to consider ; it is a ques- 
tion for the nation. Is it nothing to us that three millions 
of Americans are thus enslaved to the pope by his abso- 
lute possession and control of all their church property ? 
Do we desire to give him the utmost possible power over 
them, and to remove them as far as possible from conform- 
ity to our institutions and susceptibility to their influence? 
Shall we allow the worst enemy of this nation to exert 
against us a power so vast? 

Sooner than to allow this, and if it cannot be other- 
wise prevented, every title held by the pope, or any bishop, 
Jesuit, or priest of his, should be annulled by law, and the 
property confiscated, unless the church to which it belongs 
will hold it for themselves by a board of lay trustees like 
those of the St. Louis church. 

In all this there is no intolerance ; it is simple common 
sense. Why should we play into the hands of the great 
conspiracy against our institutions, of which the pope, the 
Emperor of Austria, and Metternich are the mainsprings ? 
Moreover, it is time that the amount and condition of all 
the property of every kind owned or controlled by the 
pope, through his agents, in this country were thoroughly 
understood. 

Once more : it is the duty of American citizens to re- 
move from all editors of newspapers and all politicians all 
temptation to play into the hands of the pope or his bish- 
ops. If we are faithful to ourselves, we may be sure that 
they will be faithful to us. They will not pay court to 
the rulers of three millions of Romanists, if, by so doing, 
they are sure to lose the favor of eighteen millions of 



WHAT SHALL BE DONE? 



Protestants. We owe it to ourselves, to our country, and 
to the world to strengthen, embolden, and sustain them in 
the discharge of their duties as Protestants. As soon as 
all American citizens shall view with proper indignation 
the Romish emissaries, called bishops,who reside in America, 
their lordly titles, and gaudy robes, and pious cant will avail 
them little in their efforts to enslave Protestant politicians 
and the Protestant press. The entire emancipation of the 
press, then, and of politics, from Romish influence and in- 
trigue, is an object the importance of which no mind can 
estimate. This emancipation the people can effect simply 
by acting as Protestants ; and they must take the work 
into their own hands. "When this work shall have been 
effected, when we shall have an all-pervading, free, bold, 
independent, intelligent Protestant press, then the Romish 
bishops among us may retire as soon as they please into 
the obscure shades of private life. But if Protestants will 
not be faithful to their own principles, if for inferior party 
ends they will sacrifice religious liberty, free schools, and 
the property and lives of all coming generations, then let 
them not make editors and politicians the scapegoat on 
which to place the sin of the ruin of this nation. I do 
not hold editors or politicians guiltless if they yield to 
temptation ; God and his country ought to be to every 
Protestant dearer than life. Neither, on the other hand, 
do I excuse the people, if, having the power to invigorate 
and embolden editors and politicians in the path of duty, 
they fail to put it forth. ' 

Our enemies glory in our divisions; by them they de- 
clare boastingly that they shall prevail over us. Let us 
show them that freemen can be united by noble principles, 
by the love of God, of our country, of freedom, of human- 
ity, more closely than the vassals of superstition by terror 
and chains. 



418 



THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED. 



Look well into the question of monasteries and nunne- 
ries ; there is.no doubt that they are a curse to the nation. 
Nunneries are prisons of deluded and hopeless victims. 
Romish public sentiment and force imprison them. Unmar- 
ried men have the charge of unmarried women, and hear 
them confess in these secret abodes. Need more be said ? 
Even Catholic Spain was compelled to break up the whole 
system because of its abominable profligacy. The united 
testimony of all ages is against it, as I have already shown 
by abundant proof. Shall this root of abominations, then, 
be allowed to spread far and wide, and by its pestilential 
influences blast society on every side ? 

I ask your particular attention to the pernicious influ- • 
ence of Romanism on the morals of the community in this 
respect, that you may learn to what a depth of immorality 
and vice this country would be plunged if Popery should 
prevail. By the returns laid before Parliament, it appears 
that in London the proportion of illegitimate births is four 
per cent. ; in Paris it is thirty- three ; in Brussels thirty-six; 
in Munich twenty-five ; in Yienna fifty-one per cent. The 
amount of immorality thus manifested is a hundred fold 
greater in some Romish parts of Europe than in any part 
of Protestant England. In Rome, the city of popes, car- 
dinals, archbishops, bishops, priests, monks, and nuns, they 
dare not make returns. But one fact speaks for itself: 
The number of births in Rome, by Dr. Bowring's returns, 
is four thousand three hundred and odd per annum ; and, 
by the returns of Mittermeyer, the number of foundlings 
in the different foundling institutions in Rome, during a 
period of ten years, gives a return of three thousand one 
hundred and sixty per annum. Hobart Seymour, from 
whom I take these statistics, says, "All this certainly 
speaks very strongly of the immorality of Rome, or de- 
clares that, if the mothers be married mothers, .they are 



WHAT SHALL BE DONE? 



419 



the most unnatural mothers in the world." An examina- 
tion by Mr. Seymour of the official and governmental re- 
turns of every Roman Catholic country in Europe, in fif- 
teen or twenty folio volumes, enabled him to say that 
Popery is universally the mother of vice and crime. Thus 
in England the ratio of murders, during ten years, was 
four to a million ; during the same time in Ireland it was 
forty-five to a million per annum, and in the most favora- 
ble years never less than nineteen to a million. In Bel- 
gium, one of the best Romish countries, the murders are 
eighteen to a million ; in France thirty-one to a million ; 
in Austria, the great pillar of Popery, thirty-six to a mil- 
lion ; in Bavaria, a Romish state, including homicides, 
sixty -eight persons to a million — excluding homicides, 
thirty to a million ; in Italy, in the Venetian and Milan- 
ese provinces, forty-five to a million ; in Tuscany forty-two 
to a million ; in the States of the Pope one hundred to a 
million ; in Sicily ninety to a million ; in Naples, doubly 
cursed by Popery and the most immitigable Popish civil 
despotism, two hundred to a million. The average of all 
these Papal nations is seventy-five to a million. "In 
Italy,"' says Seymour, " the land of popes, cardinals, bish- 
ops, priests, monks, and nuns, there is perpetrated such 
an amount of murder that the number of persons killed 
every year in cold blood is greater than the number of 
men that have fallen in some of the most terrific struggles 
on the modern battle fields of Europe." In one of the 
doctrines of Popery there is a direct tendency to this re- 
sult. The Protestant believes in no change after death ; 
the Romanist believes that masses, whether purchased by 
friends or by the murderer, can deliver a soul from pur- 
gatory, and these masses can be purchased at a very cheap 
rate. Mr. Seymour delivered a soul from purgatory, as 
he was assured by the authorized priest at Rome, who sold 



420 



THE PAPAL CONSPIRACY EXPOSED. 



him a mass at the cheap rate of two francs. He was 
asked to enter the name of the soul to be delivered in the 
altar book, which he did, and was assured that the soul 
in question was .actually delivered from purgatory. This 
was certified by a receipt from the priest, which he pub- 
licly exhibits. The only slip in the case was that Mr. 
Seymour entered his own name in the book, thinking, as 
he said, that, as they had pledged to take him out of pur- 
gatory that day, they would have done better to have been 
sure that they had got him in first. 

Resist with united and irresistible indignation all Ro- 
mish attacks upon the Bible, upon history, upon our public 
schools. 

There are also other important principles to be stated 
concerning the rights of self-defence, conferred by God 
on Protestant communities, against the plots and threats 
of Romanism ; but the full consideration of these we shall 
leave to the coming exigencies of the times and to the 
future developments of the providence of God. 

Finally : confide above all things in the sanctifying 
power of the Spirit of God ; avoid fanaticism and all dis- 
eased and malignant emotions ; be in sympathy with God, 
in whom love is almighty. He gives us the honor of aid- 
ing in his great judgment ; let, then, his Spirit animate us 
and his principles be our guide. Then will his glory il- 
lumine our prospects, and his victory shall be ours. 



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